Bad Girl's World
by raaeebrucee
Summary: Ary Hale, Divas Champion, enters the storyline of the Authority unwillingly after months of feuding with Nikki Bella. Chaos ensues as she fights to save herself from Seth's master plan; - also in which Ary Hale is in love with 'that stupid little blonde streak' Colby has going on; "enemies in the streets, freaks between the sheets." -HIATUS
1. introducing

okaaaay so. hi. my first wrestling fic on here since i created this new account. i should mention before you guys start reading that i'm absolutely in love with Seth Rollins as a gimmick, but i don't know him (or any of the other wrestlers mentioned) personally or at all, so none of this is actually based off of his actual personal character... in that way im kinda disclaiming from everything ok

also, i use their actual names for this, because with this story i kinda wanted to differentiate the character from the person, so in case you don't know, Seth Rollins irl is Colby Lopez (i try to describe other characters how they look, so hopefully you'll figure out the other names - Roman Reigns' nickname is apparently Joe? so i use that, Ambrose is Jonathan, Dolph Ziggler is Nick Nemmeth, etc etc)

i wanted to try and keep this as reasonable as possible given that at the moment the divas division is getting quietly more and more kick-ass :')

would love some feedback on this so i know that i'm not just writing it for myself lmao, and don't fret, if you think you've read something exactly the same, i've posted this on AO3, so you can also find it on there as well.

enjoy :*

* * *

She's respected. In the line of work she's in, it's really all that she can care for. Somehow she causes more trouble than she anticipates, somehow it gets cleaned up. And she can also rip a mean promo; somehow her words are harsher, straighter, more hard-hitting than what she thinks they can be. She doesn't work in pairs, she works alone, fights her own battles, bows down when she loses (not that it happens very often). _Never_ gives up.

Possibly that's why Vince likes her so much; she doesn't say yes to often, stays true to her character and what her character stands for - John Cena's is all about _hustle, loyalty, respect_ , Randy Orton's is all about anger management, unpredictability, Triple H's is all about being the ring leader, the game maker, the king. And her gimmick is all about the strength of a lone wolf.

The commentators constantly refer to her as 'the reckoning' - at least, that's what her submission finisher is called: it's an adapted version of a kimura lock, something that'll work upright and on the ground. Her finisher is a variated running reverse DDT, using the turnbuckles as a launch pad to flip over her opponent and drive their head and back into the mat. In correlation with her gimmick, it's called The Bite.

She's respected - and the diva's champion - for a reason.

* * *

" _And tonight, Cole, we welcome The Wolf back to the ring!"_ JBL says, eyes wide with anticipation. " _She's been out on injury leave for the past couple of weeks due to a broken wrist, but tonight she's going to join us for the Diva's Battle Royal championship contender match._ "

" _I'm so excited, JBL!_ " Cole exclaims " _It's been a while since she's shown her face, especially after that cross-arm breaker Nikki Bella used on her._ "

" _It'll be interesting to see what her attitude's going to be like tonight, Cole - we know how unpredictable she can be."_

When Ary Hale's music hits, the screams and cheers that echo are almost ear shattering. It starts off with white noise and blends into the song which sings 'daughters of darkness' loudly around the arena. And when Ary Hale hits the ramp, the screams get louder.

" _I get goosebumps every time she does this_ ," JBL murmurs.

There's a red hoodie covering her face and then the arena is shrouded in darkness as she flicks her head back. Black kohl lines her dark eyes and they're staring dead ahead, her arms outstretched either side of her body, as the lights come flickering back on.

" _Every frickin' time._ "

The sleeveless hoodie that she's wearing drapes under the armpits, her toned shoulders and arms shown off in the large holes. The black sports bra and shorts that she's wearing compliment her tanned skin nicely, and her dark brown hair is pulled back into a sleek pony tail. She's wearing her black wrestling boots with white leg warmers pulled halfway up her calves and there's black tape around her wrists, though one side is more heavily taped than the other, and she looks _fierce_.

She makes her way down the ramp, holding her diva's belt high in the air, and slides into the ring with a microphone in hand. Lifting it to her lips, she doesn't get a word out before the crowd start chanting "arrrr-ryyyy" over and over again. She tries to keep the smirk off her face, wraps an arm around her stomach to rest her elbow on, and puts the microphone under her chin as she waits for the chanting to die down.

As the air settles, Ary does a small turn to survey the arena. "I've missed you too," she coos into the microphone and then cracks a smile as the audience cheer for her.

"It's been a long time, hasn't it?" Ary muses, pulling her bottom lip into her mouth. "You all know exactly why I'm here, and I don't owe anyone an explanation as to my two month absence - _thank you_ , Nikki Bella, really."

Ary moves to the ropes facing the ramp, grips the top one and leans into it. "But let me tell you something, _divas_. Whoever _wins_ tonight? I haven't wrestled in two months and you can be **damn** sure I'll look forward to utterly dismantling everything you stand for. This is _my_ ring and you're just walking on borrowed time."

She lets the microphone hit the floor and drops and rolls out of the ring, sauntering over to where Cole and JBL where sitting at the announce table.

When she sits and adjusts the headset that's placed on her head, she turns to JBL and Cole who are smiling at her.

"Thanks for joining us, Ary," Cole says through a wide-mouthed smile.

"Thank you for having me."

"So Ary, talk us through your recovery - we've all missed your presence here on Raw."

"Two months worth of getting the flexibility back into my wrist, I guess. Strength work, lots of throwing and catching, a bit of resistance training. It's a broken wrist, boys, there's nothing breath taking about it."

They both laugh a little, and then, one after the other, divas make their way out to the ring. Ary says nothing during this time and clinically watches the females dancing around in her ring. It's only when the match begins that Ary visibly settles.

"Tell us, Ary, who's worthy of a match?"

Alicia Fox is the first to go, over the ropes and landing harshly on her side. Cameron is next, Eva Marie the next.

Ary hums and ponders the question as she watches the action in the ring. "I've beat all these wrestlers on my own, Cole." She chuckles as she looks over at Michael and then a sly grin forms on her lips. "I'd like to go against one of the boys, honestly. Heath Slater would be a push over…"

JBL laughs, then says, "Seriously, though! Any of those divas up there worthy of a championship match?"

"I guess we'll have to wait and see."

The ring is down to four divas - Naomi, Paige, and the Bella twins. Predictable, really. Within seconds Brie Bella is over the top rope and Naomi is following her, crashing to the ground with a loud impact.

So Ary stands, drops the headset on her chair and slides into the ring, unnoticed by the other two divas who are pre-occupied with each other.

" _What on earth is she doing, Cole?!"_

She stays down on one knee and waits until Paige has Nikki Bella right across from her at the opposite turnbuckle. And then she stands and screams Nikki's name at the top of her lungs. The two stop, turn to look at Ary.

Paige is the first to run at her, but doesn't take into consideration that Ary is standing that close to the ropes that she can just use Paige's momentum to throw her out - which is exactly what she does.

The bell rings, but neither Nikki or Ary move. Nikki does a good job at not looking scared, but Ary can see the caution in her eyes. There's a microphone thrust into Ary's waiting hand and then she lifts it to her lips, slowly inching closer to the waiting diva.

"Big bad wolf's gonna get you, Nikki," she almost sings. She looks around at the crowd who aren't louder than a rush of whispers. When she locks her eyes on Nikki once more, they're a burning flame. "I'm going to enjoy breaking you."

" _Ary is_ not _happy, Cole."_

The crowd screams as Ary launches a kick into Nikki's stomach, grabbing her arm as she keels over, and falls back onto the mat. With a hand locked around her wrist and her arm looped through Nikki's, Ary powers her way into the Kimura lock.

The diva howls and screams and kicks and punches, but Ary doesn't let go, her face twisting with effort to keep Nikki's arm in place.

" _She's gonna break Nikki Bella's arm if she goes any harder!_ "

When Ary finally releases Nikki, she grabs the microphone and hovers over her writhing body.

"Let me tell you one thing, _Bella_ ," Ary snarls down at her, "I'll hand it to you, you're good - but I'm _better_."

* * *

By the time Raw finishes, Ary has changed back into a pair of long black jeans and some sneakers. Ary Hale is very different off screen than she is on screen - she's talkative, smiley, always creating trouble.

When she finds Paul, she launches herself at his back. He laughs and his hands come around his back to tickle her, and she drops and smiles when he turns around.

"Look who we have here," he chuckles as he pulls her into a hug. "How ya' going, Princess?"

"Much better now that I'm back," she answers easily. He throws an arm over her shoulder and they walk back towards the meeting area. "I'm digging this new storyline Vince has given me."

Paul laughs and nods, "You have Steph to thank for that. She has other ideas in mind but wants to talk to you about them so she doesn't overstep the lines of your character."

Ary shrugs and smiles as she meets the gaze of Nick Nemmeth who offers her a wide-mouthed grin. She looks up at Paul and fakes a frown. "You know, I don't really like your character anymore. He's a bit of an asshole."

A bark of laughter escapes Paul's mouth and he gently shoves her away from him. "I take that very personally, you know."

She just winks at him and walks over to Nick to give him a big hug, and as she greets the rest of her friends, she notices one in particular missing.

"Have you seen Colby?" Ary asks Nick, frowning as he shakes his head. Ary hums again and sinks down into her chair, eyes searching the gathered crowd for Stephanie McMahon. She notes in her mind to go see her after the match, interested in what she wanted to do for her character.

"Alright, alright," Vince called over the murmuring of the crowd. "Let's get this thing started."

He runs over the viewing rates, the reception to the current feuds, conveniently leaves out any mention of the divas, and the upcoming pay-per-views. "Remember, if you guys have any ideas, let us know."

He pauses for a little and then locks eyes with Ary. "And if you haven't noticed, Ary Hale is back with us this week. Fully recovered, I believe, so don't go easy on her."

The crowd laugh and a few smile at her, but she only looks up at Vince as he continues talking.

"The Diva's Division is getting a lot more recognition thanks to Nikki and Ary's feud and that's the way we want to keep it going."

Ary smiles and lifts her hand to point at Nikki who winks back at her.

When Vince finishes and the room slowly starts to empty, Ary is still searching for Colby. She frowns, lets it go, stands up and is about to leave when there's a hand on her shoulder. She looks back over her shoulder and Randy Orton is staring down at her.

"Hey," she smiles brightly as she turns to face him. He smiles back at her and then gathers her up into a hug, and Ary is hesitant, but slowly returns it. The last time she had seen Randy had been when she'd slapped him - and she doesn't know why he's hugging her, but he is.

"Been a while since I've seen you, squirt," he says affectionately as he sets her down. He's so tall that his lips are in line with her head, so she steps back to look up at him.

With a frown, Ary says, "I'm forgiven?"

Randy shrugs, a small smile on his face. "I kinda deserved it, didn't I? Plus, I missed beating your ass into shape."

Ary snorts and turns, knowing that he'll follow her out of the room. "My ass is perfect just the way it is, thank you very much!"

She glances over her shoulder and coughs as Randy eyes her body off and then looks back up at her with a disinterested shrug. "It's okay, not too great."

They banter as she walks him to his tour bus, cussing each other out and laughing at snide remarks. She's known Randy since she decided that professional wrestling was her calling, and the old friends barely get a breath in while they gush news to each other.

"So, no, Vince told me to stay in Cincinnati while my wrist healed and not to worry about keeping up with you guys, but now I gotta deal with this stupid jet-lag which isn't that great," Ary's saying, "and on top of that I can't find my stupid boyfriend any where to let him know that I'm back…"

Randy watches as Ary looks around pointedly again, the sides of her lips turning down. "He'll be around somewhere, causing trouble… as usual."

Ary smirks and looks back up at him. "So this storyline between you two? You're delivering some of your best promos. Like, ever. Seriously, keep it up."

"Being angry agrees with me," he laughs, running a hand over the soft regrowth on his head. He nods back at his tour bus, saying, "I better get going. We got a long drive to the hotel and I need to freshen up, get some sleep."

Ary smiles and bids him goodbye, turning on her heel to walk back into the building. She grabs her phone out of her pocket, types up a text and sends it off to Colby.

 **To: Colby Lopez**

 **Message sent at 11:43PM**

 **Hey you, I'm going to go talk to Stephanie, message**

 **me when you get the chance, was kinda hoping to**

 **party crash on your bus for the trip up to Iowa. xx**

When Ary finds Stephanie, there are dark bags under the older ladies eyes and a phone to her ear. She's leaning against a stage pack-up box and looks tired as hell. She sends Ary a soft smile and points to her phone, mouthing 'hotel' and rolls her eyes.

Her phone buzzes in her pocket and Ary smiles as she reads the message.

 **From: Colby Lopez**

 **Message Received at 11:52**

 **Sounds like a plan to me, Princess. Gotta pack up**

 **my gear from tonight and I'll meet you out back,**

 **yeah?**

Ary doesn't respond, just puts the phone back away and listens to Stephanie bicker with the person on the other end. She sits herself up on the box and gently swings her legs back and forth, and almost ten minutes pass before Steph is saying a tired thank-you and hanging up the phone.

"I swear to God these people live to make my life misery," she laughs, her head falling onto Ary's arm. She sighs deeply and looks up at Ary, soft smile on her lips. "What can I do for you, my favourite person right now?"

Laughing, Ary hops down off the box and hugs the other woman. "I was gonna ask what you had in mind for my gimmick but I think that can wait until tomorrow."

"You know me so well," Steph sighs, almost in relief. "I really need some sleep right about now."

Ary gives Stephanie another hug and says her goodbyes, and then starts moving towards the back of the arena, humming softly to herself. Her bag is slung over her shoulder and she's making good time before an arm snakes around her waist. She squeals happily as Colby pulls her against him and then loops her arms around his neck, pushing her lips against his.

"Hey, baby," he murmurs against her mouth, smiling into the kiss. "I missed you, too."

"Okay, you two, break it up! Some people here are lonely and pathetic," Joe cries, who had turned the corner seconds before. His hands are over his eyes as he pretends to gag and Colby rolls his eyes before gently setting Ary on her feet.

"You two are so separate from who your gimmicks are it's insane," Ary muses, glancing at the long-haired samoan and then at her half blonde boyfriend. She runs her hand through the fluffy bleach blonde hair and smiles as Colby pulls a face at her. "This is cute when it's down, you look like Rogue from the x-men."

Colby smiles back at her and gathers her back into a hug. "Oh how I've missed you and your nerdiness."


	2. becoming

thank-you to all those who are following and to my one commenter, i really do appreciate any form of feedback 3

also can we just for a second talk about the fact that payback is a fatal four-way? and how much shade seth was throwing on smackdown during that contract signing? like omg the feels

enjoy!

* * *

She catches up with Stephanie the next day, shooting her a text message and then slipping into her office.

"Hey," Ary says, sliding down onto one of the leather chairs. "So, lay it down."

Stephanie goes on to explain how she knows that Ary's character is very solitary, how she knows that Ary Hale, the gimmick, is strong and competent. But how she also knows that Ary Hale, the person, is in a relationship with Colby Lopez, and a pointed eyebrow raises at this.

Ary can't hide the smirk from her face and shrugs her shoulders. "Well, when that feud started between The Shield and Evolution, Paul and Randy were hanging out with them a lot, okay? Stuff happens."

"Stuff," Stephanie snorts, giving Ary a knowing look. "So, I was thinking that we could push that ring wise. We're not talking you fighting or wrestling any of them, just some encounters and a bit of tension."

Ary tilts her head, frowning. "In what context?"

Stephanie shrugs. "Not sure yet. Maybe you interrupt Colby when he's complaining to Paul, or we can push you a little as part of the Authority."

"Not the Authority," Ary muses. She looks up at Stephanie then, eyes bright with an idea. "How about he propositions me? I retain my title against Nikki Bella at the next pay-per-view and he comes out the following Raw and asks me to join, and I turn him down? That'll create a bit of tension."

Nodding, Stephanie smiles. "Good, good. You mentioned the other night that Heath Slater would be a bit of a 'pushover'," Ary guiltily smirks, lifts a shoulder. "So maybe in retaliation he could say if you beat Slater you remained 'the lone wolf', and if you lose you join."

"No," Ary shakes her head. "That would go will with my pride, yeah, but what if we switched it up a little?"

The two continue bouncing ideas off each other, finally coming to an agreement on where her gimmick is heading, and then she leaves to catch the rest of her TV show.

The following matinee house show doesn't really hold much for Ary in terms of wrestling. She goes out and watches Nikki Bella win against her opponent and greets fans and keeps herself looking fierce, but she's missed being apart of the atmosphere and they can tell.

She meets Nikki in the ring for some hands on training right before SmackDown and the two talk about what they're going to say in their promo, using the time to chat and catch up on life outside of wrestling.

When SmackDown rolls around on Tuesday evening, Nikki is up against Paige. The match lasts for a solid eleven minutes and pride rises in Ary's chest when she realises that the crowd is still intensely watching.

Nikki wins and her music hits, but she snatches her arm from the ref's and stomps over to where the microphone is waiting for her.

"I have been called a lot of things," Nikki starts, drawing her words out so that she's clearly heard and understood. "But not good enough?" She laughs, stalks towards the top of the ring, facing the ramp. "Ary Hale you may be the _current_ Divas Champion, but you know what? This pampered, plastic mannequin has been _running_ the divas division while **you've** been on vacation!"

Ary smiles behind the curtains and crosses her arms over her chest. Nikki's gotten better with her promos as well.

"Next Sunday, when I face you for that title, you better watch your back. You may be the _best_ right now, but at Extreme Rules, I'm going to be _better_ than you."

She drops her microphone and goes to exit the ring when Ary's music hits the arena.

Ary waits until the white noises fades into the song before she rounds the corner to stand at the top of the ramp. She's not wearing any ring attire, but since she isn't set to wrestle anyone until Raw, it doesn't matter. Instead, she's wearing her red trademark sleeveless hoodie and black shorts. Her eyes are lined once again in black kohl, but this time her dark hair is down.

Once the crowd settles, Ary raises the microphone to her lips and breathily laughs into it. "Oh Nikki… last time I checked, you were incompetent of beating me at anything."

"So let _me_ tell you something I learnt while watching you become the 'top dog' of the divas division," she pauses, smirks, raises an eyebrow. "You're just that. A dog." A 'bitch' chant starts somewhere on the left side of the arena, slowly gets louder, and Ary watches as Nikki adjusts her hair. "But I'm a wolf, Nikki, and at Extreme Rules, this little house that you made for yourself? I'm going to _blow it down._ "

Ary waits for Nikki backstage and they high-five as hard as possible when they get close enough to.

"Fuck yeah!" Ary squeals, happiness radiating off of her like a dizziness.

Nikki laughs, saying, "We had them by the balls, oh my God! They were so into it!"

They get multiple pats on the back as they walk towards catering, and somewhere along the line someone passes Nikki some sweats to pull on over her bare legs. The two sit and talk about the up coming match on Raw and when Ary sees Colby, she's off and running, launching herself across his back and pressing a big slobbery kiss onto his neck.

As he gasps and almost becomes turtle-like, Ary drops off him and ducks behind one of the J&J Security boys. He playfully glares at her and holds his arm out, and she fits herself into his side.

"You're a brat, you know?" He says to her, smiling as she looks up at him with a shit-eating grin on her face. "I don't know why I stick around."

"My ass is too irresistible to you, Lopez."

"If that's what you think," he laughs, pressing a kiss to her head.

She looks up at him and wraps an arm around his waist, eyes questioning. "So, what's Seth Rollins going to do tonight?"

"Nothing, actually."

"These two follow you around for fun, then?"

The two boys behind them snort at her and continue in their own conversation.

"No, Steph asked for a meeting. Something new in the storyline, I guess."

"Oh! Speaking of that," Ary grins, moving to stand in front of her boyfriend. "She made a pretty good proposition to me about a new heading."

Colby raises an eyebrow. "And?"

"Well… I guess Seth Rollins is going to be seeing a lot more of Ary Hale," Ary says with a wink.

When Raw kicks off on Monday, Ary's eyes are glued to the screen backstage and silently she makes a note to herself to pronounce Orton the way JoJo does just to piss Randy off.

He starts talking and his words are harsh, and the people gathered at the back of the curtain whisper to each other as Colby listens for his cue. Ary is standing next to him, hand in his, but her eyes are on the monitor that's showing the live broadcast. Of course, she may also be interested because she's soon about to be a part of the dynamic in the storyline. When Randy says "I'm gonna pick you up by that stupid little blonde streak you got going on", Ary snorts out laughter.

"Really?" Colby says as he smiles down at her. "I thought you said it was cute."

Ary laughs and says, "Oh trust me, it is," before leaning up on her tip-toes to give him a drawn out kiss. Her hands are in his shirt and his are gripping her waist, and she pulls back a little to look up at him. "You gonna finish soon? I need a sparring partner to get warmed up."

Colby smirks down at her and then he's being pushed out to the sound of his music.

When she sees him on screen, Ary clenches her fist and bites her knuckles to stop the grin from spreading across her face.

"Randy, Randy, look; I don't wanna come out here and state the obvious, but man… you _really_ have a bit of an anger problem."

The crowd jeers at Colby, or really, Seth, and Randy looks like he's just been told the dumbest thing in the world. "Are… you just _now_ realising _I_ have issues with anger? Seth, thats not my problem, I don't have an anger problem, I have a _Seth Rollins_ problem!"

Ary snickers to herself and then moves back to the general area where Nikki is.

"So, I'm thinking," she starts, and Nikki looks up from her phone to concentrate on Ary. "No talking tonight. I know that we were going to cut another promo, but I think we should push that back to tomorrow and just wrestle tonight."

Nikki nods, adding a soft, "Yeah, that sounds good to me," but Ary can tell that something's not right. She dips her head to catch Nikki's eyes and the other girl sighs. "Brie's a bit out of it at the moment, she feels like she's been pushed back to the sidelines."

Ary hums in understanding and looks towards one of the change rooms. "I can understand that. She doesn't want to come out with you tonight?"

"No, it's not just that," Nikki shakes her head, "She's worried about Daniel as well, which is great."

"Tell her to go see Steph. I got really into the feud you guys had a couple of months back, it was really entertaining."

Nikki agrees but stays quiet, and Ary knows that there's nothing she can really do, so she stands and makes her way to the change rooms to pull on her gear. It's nothing too fancy, not like what the other divas wear, but she's okay with that. On top of her sports bra is a black cropped shirt, and then it's just her usual black shorts and black knee high wrestling boots.

When she ventures back out of the change room, the title wrapped around her waist, she runs her fingers along the fiery tattoo lines spreading out across the space of her left hip.

Ary rounds a corner and stops short at the camera crew and the production guys gathered around Paul and Colby, pre-recording a little segment now that the evening's in full swing.

She smiles at the two and stands back to wait for them to finish and the cameras to go off before shouting, "Two of my favourite people sharing another on-screen moment!"

Paul rolls his eyes and slaps Colby on the back as a goodbye before walking off.

Walking towards Colby, Ary pulls herself up onto one of the crates and holds her arms out for him to walk into. He slides between her legs and presses a short kiss against her lips before pulling back with a raised eyebrow.

"Still need that sparring partner?" Colby teases, running his nose along her jaw.

A sigh falls from Ary's lips and she drops her head into his neck, delicately peppering kisses into his skin. "No, it was a workout enough pulling these stupid boots on."

Colby laughs into her hair and slips his hands underneath the title, gently popping it off so he can grip her waist, skin to skin. When Ary raises her head, Colby catches her mouth and kisses her passionately, hand moving around to the small of her back to pull her closer to his body.

"Colby," she laughs, pulling away, "You're belt is really fucking cold."

He grins as he watches the goosebumps erupt along her arms, smiles through the next kiss he gives her, and then presses his lips against her head. "Seth Rollins would never give up his belt for a woman."

Ary raises an eyebrow and pulls away, crossing her arms. "Oh, really?"

Colby pokes his tongue out at her in response and then wriggles his eyebrows. "You're unarmed, diva warrior," he threatens, and then pokes her in the ribs. Ary squeals and jumps, then glares at her cackling boyfriend.

"Traitor."

He laughs as he darts forward to poke her again, and then she launches at him, flinging herself onto his back to wrap an arm around his throat in a gentle chokehold. One of his hands is on the soft skin of her thigh and the other on her arm around his neck, and he cringes as she blows raspberries into his neck.

Out of the corner of her eye, Ary can see Nikki approaching as she calls out, "Come on you power-house couple, let's go, move it, we have a show that's still airing."

Nikki walks around them and slips the title over her shoulder, and Colby sets off after her, Ary giggling into his back as he bounces in his steps.

"You two are so gross," Nikki remarks, sending a look over her shoulder.

They reach the curtain just as Nikki's music hits. She quickly hands the title back to Ary, who is now on the ground, and prances out into the arena.

"Go get 'em, tiger," Colby whispers into her ear, smacking her ass as he walks back towards the change room.

Ary glares after him until she's being pushed out in front of the crowd, Halestorm's _Daughters of Darkness_ booming through the arena.

The lights flicker and when Ary is drenched in the spotlight, her arms are spread wide, head lowered, eyes glaring down the ramp. She walks forwards then and once in the ring, slips the belt off her shoulder and holds it high in one hand.

" _Ary looks ready for a battle tonight, John._ "

When the bell rings, Nikki and Ary dart forward, lock up quickly.

Two years ago when Ary first stepped into the world of WWE, she'd fallen in love with Nikki Bella's in-ring style. She'd told the other diva as much the first time they'd met, and had since developed her own unique kind of style with her help.

Nikki pushes her back into the ropes, head underneath the top, and waits until the three count to let go. They circle each other again, Ary rolling her shoulders. The crowd are chanting something incomprehensible, but it doesn't matter to either of the divas.

Launching herself at the other diva, Ary goes for a headlock, linking her hands together, and then drops Nikki onto her knee in a modified back breaker. A quick cover, a push off, and Nikki stands, an arm caressing her back.

The two lock again. The Bella twin pushes Ary into the ropes and catches her under the chin with a drop kick and goes for a quick cover with kick out at one.

" _She powers out of that cover, and John, I don't think I've seen Ary protect her wrist once._ "

After a grapple and some hair pulling, Ary is sent flying into the turnbuckles. Her head bounces of the padded corner with a sharp thwack. Nikki moves quickly, climbing up the ropes to slam her fists into the sides of Ary's face, and then in a sudden change of pace, Ary rams her elbow into the other girls stomach, sending her flying off the ropes.

While Nikki's down, Ary drops on her knees and attempts to lock in her Kimura submission move. She fumbles with the limbs but in the pure strength that Nikki has, the diva lifts them both to their feet and throws Ary over her shoulder. The latter stumbles back into the ropes, but bounces off them to deliver a heavy clothesline. Nikki's straight back up, and Ary slams her arm across her chest again.

When Nikki gets back up, Ary lands a kick into her stomach and wraps her arm around the divas neck.

" _Ary Hale is_ dominating _in this match-up, and it looks like she's getting ready for The Bite!_ "

Ary runs at the ropes and bounces off the middle, then the top turnbuckle, flips over Nikki and pulls her down in a reverse DDT. She covers Nikki after rolling her back onto the other diva and waits for the three count before rolling off.

Colby laughs at Ary when she walks out that evening. She wants to naturally curl her hair, so she has two tightly wound buns either side of her head.

"Shut up," she says as she points her finger at him, "if you can have that blonde streak, I can leave my hair like this."

He throws his hands up, but still can't wipe the smirk off of his face. She collapses onto the bed and into his arms, sighing into his neck, curling herself up into him.

They're at the hotel in the Green Bay, taking the night off until 1AM, where they will travel into Seth's home town for the recording of SmackDown. And they're both feeling very exhausted, decide they need a quiet night in.

"So, I was thinking about this whole story-line thing," Colby breathes into her hair. "I'm not sure I like the physicality of it, Ar, you could get really hurt. Like more than just breaking a wrist kind of hurt."

"I know."

When she doesn't offer anything more, he sighs. "So you don't care, then?"

"Of course I care, Colby." Ary shifts on his chest and rests her chin on above his heart. She looks up into his eyes with no barriers. Just honesty. "I know how wrong this stuff can go. We go out there four to five nights of the week and put our bodies on the line to give good performances. Randy broke his collarbone from landing wrong, you've had your fair share. If I didn't think I could handle it, I just wouldn't do it."

"And what if you get hurt?"

"Then we deal with it."


	3. remaining

Okay! so to make up for my next chapter probably taking more than a week to write (sorry!), I've written a super long chapter for now :)  
THANKYOU FOR COMMENTING! means the world to me and it absolutely makes my day when people tell me they love my writing :*

enjoy!

* * *

When Extreme Rules rolls around on Sunday night, Ary and Nikki have gone over their match more times than the other can care to remember. They know their moves. They know Ary retains the tile. The freedom they have in a ten minute match is beyond words.

As soon as the ring is set up in the middle of the arena, Ary pulls on some training clothes and slides herself in. She runs at the ropes, bounces off them, practices her flip from the turnbuckles. She doesn't work up a sweat, instead choosing to sit cross legged in the middle of the ring and stretch out her muscles.

Colby is recovering from the gruelling cross fit session he'd had the previous night when they'd arrived in Rosemont. It was like he had this uncanny ability to sniff out the gyms in his sleep.

So Ary sits alone, revelling in the silence, imagining her entrance, going over the moves in her head. She finds her zen.

When she hears her last name, Ary looks up. Randy Orton is leaning against the apron. She smiles at him slowly and untangles herself from her position, standing up as he climbs in. They hug, pull away and then Ary looks at him.

"Don't you be hurting my boy toy tonight, Orton."

Randy laughs and drops into a squat. "That is _definitely_ my first priority," he teases with a wink.

Ary quietens and then looks up at the arena. "I've missed this. I've missed it all."

"I bet. I know what it's like to come back from a real injury, and it's one of the best things in the world."

"Haven't missed you, though."

He snorts out laughter and throws a hand across his chest. "Ouch. That hit right here, Ary, right in my heart."

She holds her hand out to Randy and he lifts to his feet easily. They begin to practice moves on each other - softly, though, because Randy is like twice her size.

By the time they're kicked out of the ring, the rest of the roster is beginning to arrive. She hugs Randy and wishes him luck for his match and then disappears into the mass of tech people and superstars.

Her match isn't scheduled until the middle of the show, but she doesn't really want to wait to get changed. When Ary comes back out into the hallway, she's suited up in her ring gear. What she really enjoys about pay-per-views is that it _definitely_ means a more badass get-up.

Colby whistles when he sees her. Then smirks and pulls her in for a kiss.

Nikki is set to wear all white with a little blue, so Ary had asked for her costume to be black, a little bit of green, a little bit of purple. Her crop top has a leather-like finish with thick straps instead of sleeves and her pants have the same deal. Her boots have a scaled look and glint green and purple depending on where they are under lighting, and she's got black strapping around her both her wrists.

"For some reason you look more fierce," Colby breaths against her mouth.

Ary just laughs at him.

When it's time for her to go out, she's shaking. Colby presses another long kiss against her lips and then affectionately slaps her ass as her music comes on.

The match between Nikki and Ary is intense. They both look good in the ring, landing blows and kicks and DDTs that have the crowd captivated. There's a moment when Ary goes to land where her right wrist takes a lot of the impact, and she's slow to get up after testing it in a way no one can see. After quite a few near falls and a rack-attack, Ary ends the match with her finisher flip DDT and the kimura lock.

Seth Rollins retains his title - Colby doesn't even know how Paul and Stephanie want him to move after it, though, just knows that they trust in his ability to get back up. The match is gruelling, taking a lot out of him, taking a lot out of Randy, and they both knew that this would hurt. But when he delivers the RKO to Orton, it's over.

The power-couple still have all the power.

* * *

Ary knows that she can't drink much, has always known that she's a little bit of a lightweight, and Colby is much the same, but enjoys the high of being drunk from time to time. So when they hit a club that night, prepared to celebrate their title retentions, she knows that it won't take long for either of them to hit that peak.

She's dressed in nothing but a long sleeved tight black dress and heeled ankle boots that push her to a height where she's inline with his nose, and he's in his usual skinny jeans and dark button up.

But when Colby sees Ary on the dance floor, twisting her hips and throwing her head back, dancing in a way that sends pulsing blood right down to his penis, he can't stop. He doesn't think about it, moves his legs, puts a hand on her shoulder. He runs it up over the soft, warm skin of her neck, traces his fingers to cup the base of her skull.

Her eyes drift close as he runs his blunt nails back and forth, tugging on her hair, and she swallows the moan biting up her throat.

And then Colby is threading his hand through hers, tugging her along behind him, pulling her to a secluded side area near the fire escape. He grabs her ass as he presses her between him and a wall and his eyes are already shut as his head dips into her neck. She curves up into him, slips her fingers into his hair.

A small sigh turns into ragged breathing as Colby kisses and sucks her skin, and when he pulls away, she's heavy lidded and his lips are puffy and red and her mouth is slightly parted.

" _Fuck,_ Ary," Colby sighs aloud, and he moves a hand to her face, dragging his thumb down across her lips.

He ducks his head and pushes her mouth open. She slides her tongue along his and then pulls back, breath hot along his cheek until she reaches his jawline. His head drops back and this _groan_ sounds from the back of his throat like his eyes are rolling into the back of his head, and then she bites onto the tender flesh just under his jaw, right above his pulse point. She bites, kisses, licks - peppers his neck with her mouth until he's panting just as much as she was.

"Ary," he groans again, and his voice is gravely and deep and sends heat throughout her veins. " _Fuck._ "

Her fingers trace along the back of Colby's neck and a shock runs down his spine, goosebumps erupting on his skin. Colby's head falls towards her and somehow kisses his way into Ary's mouth and there's fire burning under his skin and under her skin, and the kiss is hard and wet and passionate. Ary's fingers dance along the skin at the side of his neck and her other hand is tangled in the blonde strands, tugging enough for a growl at the back of his throat.

She pulls away from his mouth panting and all he does is chase her and press them closer together.

"Colby," she whispers into his mouth, "Please…"

His erection is pressing against her stomach and he bends to lift her thighs around his waist, pushing the material of her dress back so that she has more freedom.

There's a cough and someone clearing their throat and before Colby can even grind against her, he stops. They untangle from each other and sheepishly readjust their clothing as a bartender looks at them.

"You two can go finish that somewhere else, okay? Not here."

(When they get home, Ary rides him into the early hours of the morning. There are fingerprint bruises on her waist and nail marks across his shoulders to prove it.)

* * *

" _And it's Seth Rollins starting off Monday night Raw!_ "

"Finally, finally, last night the viper Randy Orton learnt what the entire WWE universe has known for a very long time… you _can not_ out _smart_ Seth Rollins.

"I mean, need I remind you that I am the man who single-handedly built the most dominant faction in the history of WWE - The Shield. Oh, and I'm also the guy who single-handedly _destroyed_ it."

Ary stares at the monitor, a half adoring grin on her face. Randy snorts next to her, and she turns to smile at him.

"And last night I proved the kind of champion I'm going to be. A _fighting_ champion, a _valiant_ champion. Randy Orton thought he had me right where he wanted me…"

Randy snorts again, and this time pokes a finger into her cheek. "You're smitten."

She doesn't disagree with him.

"Randy Orton wanted me all by myself, and I _beat_ Randy Orton _all by myself_."

Paul's approach is silent, but when there's a heavy calloused hand on Ary's shoulder, she knows that it's him. "You sure you're ready for this gimmick?" He asks, a frown creasing his face.

"Yeah," Ary nods, "I want to see the reaction. Plus, it'll be a way to reiterate how tough females can be in wrestling, not some stick thin barbie-doll pushovers."

"Doesn't mean that it's not going to hurt though, Princess."

Ary rolls her eyes at the taller man. "I hurt myself almost every day going into that ring, but I do it because I love it. If I wasn't up for it, I simply wouldn't do it."

"I know," Paul says. "How is Colby taking it?"

She shrugs. "He doesn't particularly want to hurt me, but he knows how good it will look on-screen. Plus, it means we get to spend more time together."

Paul laughs at that, pulls her into his side in a half-armed hug. "Don't try and hide your pain, okay? I know you're tough, but if you're hurt, we can help."

When Paul leaves, Ary jumps up and down and slaps her thighs, shaking out her muscles and warming up.

"But you know, I'm not the _only_ champion who retained their title last night at Extreme Rules. Ary Hale, are you out there somewhere?" Colby smirks into the camera and lifts his hands. The crowd cheers at the sound of Ary's name but is stumped as to what he wants from her.

Ary walks out on the ramp, her music blaring into the arena. She doesn't bother with her trademark pose, just takes the microphone handed to her and plasters a cautious look on her face. Once the crowd dies down a bit in noise, Colby moves to face her, a heavy smirk on his lips.

"Ary, Ary," Colby says into the microphone, "I'm glad you could be here tonight holding that championship, no, really, I am."

Ary glares at him. "What do you want, Rollins?"

He laughs into the microphone. "Oh, what _I_ want is _very_ simple. I'm the undisputed _future_ of this company! So, it's only natural to have my female counter-part."

This time Ary is laughing. "You and I are _nothing_ a-like."

"Say whatever you want, Hale, here's the truth of the matter; both of us are _dominating_ the WWE. So you join the Authority, or you _lose_ whatever name you've made for yourself."

The boos that echo around the arena are so loud Ary lets a small smirk drop on her face. "No way."

"I think you misunderstood me, Ary. That wasn't a question, it was a _demand_."

"And I said _no_."

The crowd cheers loudly at that, and Ary lifts her hand, swings the microphone down between her fingers and drops it to the floor with a smack. But when she goes to leave, two bodies come to stand out in front of her - Noble and Mercury.

And actually, when standing beside Colby they look short - but standing in front of her, a couple of centimetres on her 5'8, they're as menacing as can be.

"C'mon, Ary," he drawls into the microphone. "You don't want to defy me."

She smirks at the boys in front of her and then turns on her heel, walking directly towards Colby. Slipping around the pole and heading for the ring announcers little booth, Ary picks up a chair and slaps it together. Her face is pulled tight in a glare as she looks up at Colby. But she doesn't move into the ring.

"What're you doing, Ary?"

He does a good job of sounding worried, Ary can give him that, and when she's back up on the ramp with J&J Security raising their hands and trying to talk her down, she picks her microphone back up.

"Seth Rollins, you do _not_ want to do this; you will not like where this path leads you."

When Colby cackles into his microphone, Ary's glare hardens. "You're a diva, there's nothing you could _possibly_ do to fight your way out of this."

The crowd goes insane. Ary looks down the ramp at Colby and she lifts the microphone to her mouth. "You think because I'm a _diva_ that I have no power?"

As she swings the chair around to catch Noble flat in the shoulder, she's screams at the top of her lungs over and over again " _Poor powerless me!_ ", slams the head of the chair into Mercury's stomach, slams it down onto Noble's back, _slams_ it down on to Mercury's shoulders, keeps going until Noble lifts his hand.

Breathing hard, Ary turns back around to Colby and points at him, then lifts the microphone out of her pocket. "What a diva, right?"

Her music hits as she leaves Colby staring open mouthed at the top of the ramp.

* * *

The next promo airs in the middle of the show, so Ary and Colby have a little time to themselves before they need to film it. They're sitting in catering with his arm thrown across her waist and she's got one leg over his.

"You know, in a months time we'll have been going out for a year," Colby breathes into her hair.

Ary giggles into his shoulder and slips her hand onto his thigh. "If you'd told me we would've lasted this long, I would've laughed. You couldn't even form coherent sentences around me, I had to do all the work."

" _Hey!_ That is so not true." When Ary glares at him, he chuckles. "Okay, maybe it is a little, but it's not like I was scared, I was just… nervous."

She smiles. She remembers how this had started like it was yesterday, with lingering looks, smiles, staring at each other from across the room. Heated looks were what caught Ary initially, the way he just stared with his dark eyes. Teasing each other when Randy was around. Endless flirting, a drunken kiss, the rumours. How she'd asked him on a date. How he'd been so ecstatic with his answer he'd knocked a table over. He used to fumbled on his words, have no idea what to say, but once he got used to the feeling of having her around, he'd grown into it.

"One year," she laughs again. She mischievously glances up at him. "So, when are we having kids?"

His mouth drops a little until he realises she's joking and then his eyebrows pull together in thought. "I was thinking maybe six kids? You can name one Seth, the other Rollins-"

"You're lame."

Colby's smile melts her heart.

When they're called to do the promo, he flings Ary over his shoulder and slaps her ass, deposits her next to a flushed looking Renee, fits a chair between her hand and her hip.

"I'm joined by my guest Ary Hale at this time," she says, and the camera pans to Ary who is staring at the floor with a metal chair tucked under her arm. She can hear the crowd from where she stands and struggles to keep the smile from her face. "Ary, do you have any comments about what just transpired between you, Seth Rollins and J&J Security?"

Ary smirks at this. "I think Seth Rollins and his two _muppets_ just learnt a very valuable lesson, honestly; don't mess with what you can't control."

"Do you have any idea _why_ he would proposition you like that?"

"I have every idea, Renee, I know exactly where he's coming from." She looks down and smiles darkly. "We're two of the strongest forces in this company, and together we could do things that other wrestlers can only dream of. And what the Authority likes to do is take those people who are like me, or Orton, and they turn them, and Rollins believes that because of that, I will side with him. That together, we could be _unstoppable_. But he's wrong, see, I don't _care_ about him or the Authority, and quite frankly, he's stupid to believe that I would for one _second_ even _consider_ working with someone else."

Renee looks over Ary shoulder and visibly stiffens, and the camera pans up and catches Colby smiling over Ary's head. She turns and he watches with a smirk as her hand reaches down to sit on the head of the steel chair.

"Oh, Ary," he sneers condescendingly, "you're wrong. I'm not stupid, I'm the _architect_. And I've just been told that tonight, as punishment for what you did to Joe Mercury and Jamie Noble, you'll be forfeiting your match against Brie Bella and instead be the _special_ guest referee for my match against Randy Orton and Roman Reigns. And when I _win_ that match, you'll hold my hand high in the air and see _exactly_ why you should be joining the Authority."

Ary snarls quite literally at him as he laughs at her and then turns her back on him, throwing the chair against the ground and stalking off.

Almost an hour later, the referee top that she's staring at is baggy and not form fitting at all, but since she doesn't fit the only other referee top they own (something about her torso being too long), that's what she's stuck with. Her black shorts are underneath and she has her straight hair tied back in a messy pony tail. Colby think she looks great, but then she reminds him that he always thinks this.

When she's called out by the ring announcer, her face is like stone. Ary stalks to the ring, once again forgoing her pose, and bounces off the ropes twice. In the distance she sees a black poster with a white outline of a wolf and her last name at the bottom. This is when she grins.

"The following tag team match is scheduled for one fall. Introducing first from Pensacola, Florida, weighing in at 265 pounds, _Roman Reigns!_ "

She climbs the turnbuckles and sits on the top, crossing one leg over the other, and smirks as Joe looks up at her. He points his finger, saying a gentle 'keep it fair' before continuing his usual ring entrance.

"His tag team partner from St Louis, Missouri, weighing in at 250 pounds, the apex predator, _Randy Orton!_ "

Now Ary really struggles to keep the smile from her face. She and Randy had been friends for many years before she got signed by the WWE, and when that had happened, any spare time that he wasn't with his girlfriend he spent training Ary. He claims that her rise to fame is because of him, yet they had never shared an on-screen moment together. Randy gives her an even look before doing his usual pose, and she thanks whatever will-power she has that she hadn't snorted out laughter.

"Their opponents; first, weighing in at 323 pounds, Kane! And his partner, accompanied by J&J security, from Davenport, Iowa, weighing in at 217 pounds, he is the WWE World Heavy Weight Champion, _Seth Rollins!_ "

J&J Security, though looking a little sore, flank him as he saunters down to the ring with Glenn in tow, and when he walks around the back of her, she bounces of the ropes, glaring at the shit eating grin on his face.

It only really occurs to her once that she'd had like ten minutes training on calling a match before the show started. Ary motions to ring the bell and watches slowly as Colby crawls into the ring. The crowd cheer as Randy and Joe flank her, all three glaring at Colby. He raises an eyebrow at her and then she turns.

"One of you two need to go back to the apron," she calls. Then chuckles and looks back over her shoulder as a 'Justin Bieber' chant sounds through the arena.

Joe and Colby start in the middle, back and forth, until Seth rolls out of the ring. Randy is tagged in shortly after. Ary knows that a referee would usually be jumping and running around, following the fight, but she just leans back against the ropes.

She watches, pretends to feign disinterest, until Joe is tagged back in with Glenn. He propels him into the corner and Ary rolls her eyes as he repeatedly slams his arm across the chest of Glenn, and she calls out, "Off the ropes, Roman!"

He pushes Glenn out then, climbs to the top, jumps off, and lands a heavy clothesline. And then Colby slips under the ropes. Ary walks forwards, yelling at him to get out, but Joe picks him up and lets him go in a Samoan drop. When he's thrown from the ring with Glenn soon following, she laughs. Joe gives her a strange look.

There's a hand on her shoulder and when she turns, Jamie is yelling into her face about something she can't really understand. She looks at the hand on her shoulder and then shoves him from the top rope with such force that he flies back into the barricade with a sharp thwack.

Confusion ensues and she doesn't really know where to look next, but then Randy and Colby are tagged back in and somehow, the match almost returns to normal - until Randy is tossed from the ring and Colby is the last man in there.

He smiles up at her from the ground and blatantly laughs. Gets up, points at Ary as if dedicating what he's about to do next to her, and then bounces against the rope to fly out of the ring. Except, Randy and Joe move out of the way just in time. He instead lands directly on Glenn. And Glenn goes crazy.

" _Kane has lost it, absolutely lost it!_ "

He throws Jamie and Mercury over the announcers table, flings his right hand across Colby's jaw, and Ary cackles as Colby scrambles back into the ring… and right into an Superman Punch followed by an RKO.

Happily, Ary slams her palm onto the mat three times. She holds Randy and Joe's arm high as she sneers down at Colby, and then slips from the ring. When Glenn announces his next pay-per-view match against both of the men who just beat him, he glares at Ary so obviously the the camera pans to her; she just bows at him.

When he turns around, Joe hits him with a spear.


	4. beginning

we're baaaaack! this chapter has been a bitch to write omg. also it's super short so im sorry.

okay so i got a guest comment (you can go check it out if you wish) from WWEFutureDivaEm who suggested that I use ring names when they're in character and real names when they're out of character… i think it's a pretty good idea, so what i'm going to do is CENTRE the bits that the crowd/WWE universe see, and leave the rest aligned to the left; we'll see how it goes :)

and another one that suggested something i already have planned heheh

anyhow, enjoy!

* * *

They don't get out until eleven, and by then, both Colby and Ary are too tired to drive. So they hitch a ride with Orton, throw their shit in the back of his bus and try to crash on the beds - except, Orton doesn't need sleep and the other guys that are on the bus won't shut up.

It's 5AM when the two arrive at Colby's home in Davenport, but now he has a local journalist following him around. Home town sensation and all that.

He leaves her in charge of his pup, then leaves to do a morning weather broadcast and two local radio talk shows. But Ary could stay in bed forever.

Five hours later and Colby swings around to pick her up for breakfast. They head to a local diner, and Ary stays quiet through-out the questions and talking so that he can get through what he needs to.

The journalist leaves to use the bathroom, and Ary turns to Colby. "What a superstar, huh?"

He grins at her and kisses her gently on the head. He's always known that she's not much of a morning person, especially when she's lacking in sleep.

"So, I'm thinking that I'm gonna go do some Pilates while you workout," Ary muses. "I can come to QC with you and then use one of the back-rooms and put in some headphones, easy done."

Colby nods at her. "Sounds like a plan. I have an appearance at the arena in an hour, we can go after that."

So instead of traveling with Colby to the arena, she opts to catch up with one of her closest friends, Astrid - who was also one of Ary's trainers back in the day. With pale blonde hair and bright blue eyes, Astrid (also Asta or Triddy, depending on who was hanging around her) was also the person who had introduced her to Randy.

Ary had known how intense Astrid's sessions were - she used to watch them and look at the struggling people for a while before introducing herself to the young trainer. She had made known that she was interested in becoming more in shape, more fit, and the woman had just grinned this evil grin, signed her up on the spot, and told her to come in the next day.

And so Ary's training sessions lasted an hour every second day. She asked Astrid whether they should have gone into it more slowly, but the trainer just laughed and said, "This is my slow." She skipped, did multiple kinds of push-ups and sit-ups, did a medicine ball abdominal twist, crunches, squats, suicide runs. This thing that Astrid called 'the ab builder'.

When she'd first introduced this move, Ary was already dying from over exertion. In all her life, she'd never pushed herself to this extent, conditioning her fast twitch fibres as well as deepening her cardiovascular endurance.

"Okay," Astrid laughed. She could tell that Ary was struggling but didn't really care. "Lie down on the ground, catch your breath for a bit."

"Oh, thank God," was Ary's only reply. She all but collapsed, splashed some water over her sweaty face.

Astrid moved to stand over her, told Ary to grab her ankles. "You know yoga, right? Good. So this next one is kind of like a shoulder stand, but you only go up onto your back. Lift your hips off the ground using your core and reach your feet up to the ceiling."

Ary choked out a groan, just about died inside, but kept going. Needless to say that after the hour was done, she was dry retching in the bathrooms (but Astrid didn't need to know that, ever).

Ever since, Ary had been hooked on these sessions that Astrid ran. They became close friends after seeing each other almost every day for two years, Ary pushing herself, Astrid going all the way with her. Often, the trainer changed her course a little, threw in some gentler Pilates work.

And then one day she was introduced to Randy.

"Ary!" Astrid squealed as the younger girl entered the room. "Come over here!"

Ary, who was dressed in nothing more than some gym shorts and a sports bra, stared over at the trainer and the large guy who was standing next to her. She was covered in sweat, barely forcing breath into her lungs, but nodded and walked over anyway.

"Hey," she puffed out as she held her hand out towards him, "Ary, nice to meet you."

He took her hand and gently shook it, crooked smirk forming on his face. "Randy."

"Sorry about the sweat," she laughed.

"You were running on that thing like it was going to take off without you," he joked back. "It's okay, we all get like that from time to time."

Astrid smiled at Ary then, motioned to Randy. "So, Randy here is a WWE Superstar, right? Anyway, he's been there for what, two years? And he's in town with the rest of the roster, so he's scouting the gym out for some of them to come practice here."

The trainer, though young, swam in money she earned from her main job and thus owned both of the local gyms - one in a massive warehouse with boxing type set up, treadmills, punching bags, a ring, and the other a yoga studio under a cafe. She definitely had the space and the time for them, so Ary really saw no problem.

Nodding, Ary pursed her lips. "Sounds good to me. How long you in town for?"

Randy looked back at her then. "Three days; we have a pay-per-view on Sunday."

And that was what started Ary's fascination with the company. She watched as they bounced of the ropes, performed multiple arm drags, drop kicks, somersaults off the top turnbuckle, everything and anything that she could focus on while doing her own thing.

She'd met Paul around then too, introduced herself to him as one of the gym coordinators (Astrid had hired her during her second year of training - she was there that often that it would be silly not to). He'd thanked her for her time and understanding, given her a generous tip. Invited her out for drinks with the rest of the roster.

Then, it was all history. Every time the company was in town, they'd hire out the gyms for the use of their superstars, and give Astrid and Ary front row seats to the events. She'd maintained and solidified her friendship with both Randy and Paul, had become close with a couple of the others - Nick Nemmeth, for example - and became obsessed with becoming a professional performer.

Five years of in-ring training as well as conditioning her body for the rough impact of throws and hits left her bruised and battered and loving every second of it. After pulling some strings and showing off her skills to the COO Joe Koff, she spent a year at Ring of Honour, moved to NXT for two years. And had then debuted on a Raw episode during 2012.

* * *

Ary stands in the middle of the ring, microphone in hand. "Seth Rollins," she laughs bitterly. "He robbed me of my match against Brie Bella on Monday. She probably thinks she got off lightly with a win. That's what a forfeit is, your opponent wins when you don't step into the ring to fight them."

The crowd is booing. Ary laughs again, begins to pace. She's animated when she speaks now, using her hands to try and convey how angry she is. "Seth Rollins, you cost me a match, so I made the three count on yours."

"Now. Brie Bella, if you have any sense of moral dignity, we'll have that match we were supposed to have on Raw, _right now._ "

 _Brie Mode_ starts to blare over the speakers and the crowd teeters on cheering and booing, but its a reaction that she's happy with. She dances to the ring without Nikki, slides in, climbs to the second turnbuckle and thrusts a finger into the air.

Brie is more face than Nikki, but both divas get a solid reaction from the crowd now. The fact that two of the main faces of the divas locker room are going against each other makes the crowd imbalanced.

When the match starts, Ary is quick in taking the lead. A couple of heavy clotheslines, a dropkick. Some traded slaps across the chest. Brie is moving well in the ring and Ary is barely breaking a sweat. Ary takes the lead soon after, dropping the other woman onto her knee in a modified back breaker. She quickly rolls into a cover.

What happens next comes in a blur. Ary hits another dropkick, but when she lands on her wrist, it buckles under her weight. It's heavily strapped in black tape but it makes no difference as pain shoots down through her hand. When she locks eyes with Brie, she rolls her shoulder. Brie's eyes flash in realisation.

They're almost halfway through a _good_ match when Seth Rollins' music hits. The two girls are on opposite sides of the rings, recovering after a double clothesline, and when Seth walks out onto the ramp, Ary snarls at him. He's flanked by J&J and has a microphone in his hand, ready to speak once his music dies off.

"You screwed up, Ary. On Raw, with that three count, you screwed up _bad_. So tonight… you _redeem_ yourself."

Ary's on a knee, holds her wrist as she watches what unfolds in front of her. Seth almost prances towards the ring with a smirk on his face and Ary's gaze darkens as he sits on one of the commentating chairs.

"C'mon," he motions with his hands, "Blow me away."

Snarling, Ary pushes off the ropes and turns right into a knee to the stomach. She falls against the ropes, doesn't wait for Brie to scream ' _Brie Mode!'_ before she rolls out and onto the floor.

It's only when she feels a shoe against her back that she looks up. Staring down at her with a sickly sweet grin is Seth Rollins. Ary growls and pushes herself back into the ring, not once taking her eyes off of Brie as they circle each other once more.

When Ary slips Brie into the kimura lock, _one, two, three_ taps on her leg, she watches with steely eyes as Seth grabs her divas championship. He walks up the steps and into the ring, grabs her hand, thrusts it into the air, hands her title to her, and walks out.

Ary stares after him almost in shock.

* * *

Ary doesn't wait in the arena for Colby to finish his match against Jon - instead, she kisses him a quick goodbye and leaves to change back into some normal clothes for the rest of the evening. She and Colby have a flight the next morning that'll land in Montreal and she intends to spend as much time as she can with Astrid before leaving, even if that does mean pulling an all nighter.

Leaving the arena in some dark jeans and an oversized hoodie, Ary has the title in her backpack and a hand on her phone when she hears a voice calling her name. When she turns, Paul is running after her.

"What can I do for you?" She asks. It's odd for Paul to seek her out like this, so she's honestly a bit confused.

"We want to book you in for a signing and a Q&A up in Montreal as soon as you get there, if that's okay? Brie's dropped it because she wants to go spend some time with Bryan, and Nikki is filming with the Total Divas cast, so we need someone big to step in for them, figured you would be the person to come and ask." He finishes with a tentative smile, eyes hopeful.

Ary shrugs. "Yeah, no big deal. But, um, what do I answer if I'm asked about Colby?"

"Play the gimmick," Paul suggests. "It's better for TV if everyone thinks you hate each other. We'll try and keep it under wraps as much as possible, but if you're struggling, let me or Steph know."

"Sure thing. See you tomorrow, then."

When she finally gets into the car and heads off towards Astrid's house, she's exhausted and barely keeping herself awake.

Astrid doesn't bother greeting her at the door, instead sends Ary a text message to let her know the front door is open, and is waiting for her on the couch when she slips in. She dumps her bag on floor near the plush seats and throws herself across her friends legs.

"I did want to go to the bar tonight, you know," Astrid laughs. She can tell that Ary is tired and instead smoothes her hand through the long black hair strewn across her thighs. "But I guess we'll just have to settle in and watch a DreamWorks movie."

"How To Train Your Dragon?"

Astrid nods. "I was thinking the second one."

"Down for that," Ary breathes in a sigh.


	5. targeting

**helloooooo! back for another update, but before we get into this shizniz, id love to say a huge thankyou to Raquel-the-Writer for commenting on every update so far, you're awesome :) in saying that, thankyou to everyone who comments, makes my day every time, so please do make sure you drop a comment :)**

 **i think it's safe to say we're almost halfway through this little cherub? and that if I get a good enough response, i might even do a Shield fic or something similar :)**  
 **also just for the purposes of having a good finisher, Seth's curb stomp isn't suspended in this story.**  
 **anyhow, enjoy this, and if you haven't yet, chuck a listen to Daughters of Darkness by Halestorm - kind of Ary's theme.**  
 **ALSO, quickly, if you haven't quite figured it out just yet, check back in the day after the airing of smackdown for a new chapter.**

* * *

Ary is set to walk on stage, waits behind the curtain for Dolph Ziggler and Wade Barrett to finish their match. She's not donned in her wrestling gear - tonight, it's not her that is fighting. Instead, she's in some leather leggings, boots up her calves, usual red sleeveless hoodie. Her eyeliner is heavy and her eyes are burning, her hurt wrist is wrapped in some black tape, but all that Ary takes from this is that her promo needs to hit hard and needs to hit home - to everyone.

So when Wade steals a clean win over Dolph, his music isn't even playing for fifteen seconds before Ary motions for hers to start. The crowd changes in their attitude and when the guitar starts, Ary pushes through the curtain and onto the ramp.

Wade stares her down as he walks up the ramp, but she only stares right back. The arena is flooded in darkness and then a single spotlight drenches Ary in her pose, arms spread wide and head thrown back. Slowly, she lowers her face and glares straight into the camera. Unwavering. Unrelenting.

" _Ary Hale looks ready for a war…_ "

She climbs into the ring and leans against the ropes closest to the camera that has her on the titantron. She stares and stares until her music fades out, then moves to the corner, snatching a microphone from a technician that stays ringside.

Ary drums her finger tips across her collarbone. She lifts the microphone to her lips, pauses, and then stares straight into the camera once more.

"There is not a single diva in that locker room that can match me in this ring," she starts. "Not a _single_ woman who can wrestle me toe to toe and come out on top. No one. You've brought your best moves and your best finishers and you've expected that to be enough.

"And you know the funny part? Here's where I agree with The Authority. You have to _adapt_ to survive. You _adapt_ to beat who you can't beat, to win what you can't win. None of you have done that. You've got the same moves, the same attitudes, the same disregard for this company that you've always had. Give divas a chance? What a joke when you can't even make yourself stronger. I can talk you from this city on this little microphone right here and I can make you tap out with a simple hold. Adapt to survive."

Slowly, Ary's voice becomes harsher. " _Adapt_ to survive. Seth Rollins, you call yourself the architect, you sell yourself as the _future_ , you say you play this game of human chess better than anybody… Rollins, this is no game. There is a reason I have held this title for over two hundred days, there is a _reason_ I stand here above everyone else, there is a _reason_ these people cheer for me, and it's not because I play a _game,_ it's because I adapt, I fight, I conquer.

"You're trying to get into my mind, Seth Rollins, trying to mess with my head, you say that no one has ever messed with anyone like you, but you've just messed with someone who will make your life a living hell. You knock me down and I'll get back up, you take me out and I'll show up the next day. Seth Rollins, you can put me through a table and I will _still_ fight back. I will pick you apart from the inside out.

"So I have a message. For the Divas locker room, for Seth Rollins, for the Authority," Ary chuckles darkly. "You keep thinking that you have one over on me, but let me make myself **_extremely_** clear; back off. You do not want to see what I'm capable of when I am angry."

About to climb out of the ring, Ary stops when she hears Seth Rollins' theme over the speakers. Her face doesn't change except for the grin that starts to spread across her lips.

" _If Ary has any common sense, she'll leave. But… is that a smile I see? Is she smiling? John, I'm not sure what I'm seeing…"_

Seth stares at her with a face of stone and the J&J Security boys flank him, and trailing behind while looking unimpressed and not interested is Kane.

"Miss Hale," Seth drawls into his microphone. "What a pleasure, as always."

"Seth Rollins," she replies smartly, "Never a pleasure."

He sneers at her, climbs between the ropes. "Two times you have now thrown my hospitality for your own mistakes back in my face. I've tried being nice, oh, trust me, I have. I demanded that you join us and you still believe that you actually have a choice… Ary, the choice has already been made for you. You're part of the Authority, whether you want to be or not, which means I _control_ you. I **_own_** you."

Ary laughs into the microphone, " _You_ own me? Seth, you don't even own that championship around your waist; the Authority does. You're their own little puppet… you don't even own yourself."

Seth's nostrils flare and he drops the microphone from his mouth. The crowd is cheering loudly and then start chanting ' _you sold out_ '. He smiles at that. Chuckles. "You all say that like I should be ashamed of it. For you, Ary…" his eyes trail back to her and then he smirks. "Kane, as the Director of Operations, you know what's best for business, correct?"

Kane nods, frowns at Seth, wonders where this is going.

"Then if you know what's _best for business,_ Kane, you will take _action_ against Ary Hale for defying us." A grin forms on Seth's face and he turns back to the diva. "You will _choke-slam_ Ary Hale… we'll see how she gets back up after that."

The stadium is overcome with jeering and booing, and Seth moves to stand in the corner, motioning for Kane to obey him. Frowns as he sees the smile on Ary's face. She walks up to Kane, right in front of him, holds her arms open. Screams ' _come on!_ ' at him, shoves him backwards. When Kane does nothing, Ary smiles again.

Ary grabs the ropes behind Kane and slips under them, walking back up the ramp and onto the stage. Doesn't even look back at the World Heavy Weight Champion who is almost frothing at the mouth in anger.

* * *

By the time Colby has finished his match with Jon, Ary has had time to change into some nicer clothes - a black strappy cropped singlet, wet-look jogger pants, and tall, black ankle boots. She's just pulling on her beanie when Colby pushes the door open to their shared locker room.

"Good match," is the first thing she says, smiling at him through the mirror.

He grins back at her, kissing her quickly on the lips before grabbing a towel off the back of a chair. "I'm gonna have a quick shower, then we can hit the road with Jon and Renee."

Ary nods. "I'll go find Jon or Renee and hang out with them for a bit. I need to do a fallout promo, but text me when you're done so I can let you know where we are."

Colby nods at her and ducks into the bathroom. When Ary's double checked the room after packing both hers and Colby's duffle bags, she slings her belt over one shoulder and green parka jacket over the other, grabs her bag, and leaves the room.

She finds Renee with a camera crew and with a subtle nod drops her bag, turning on her heel and walking back down the corridor.

"Ary, if I could just get a word with you about what we saw out in that ring earlier tonight-"

Ary turns again, throwing a glare over her shoulder but softening when she realises it's only Renee. "What about it?"

"Do you feel lucky to have escaped Kane's wrath?"

"Look, I know it was definitely a brash thing to do, but it wasn't luck…" Ary pauses and looks over her shoulder. "I know that Kane seems like a really scary guy, but when you strip him down, he's nothing but a man who is sick and tired of being pushed around. I had a gut feeling that he wouldn't do it, and he didn't, so here I am."

"Though Seth Rollins has been almost like a thorn in your side, what about the divas locker room? Are you not scared of the repercussions from what you said tonight?"

With a shrug, Ary says, "Not really, Renee. Not scared of them, per say, just… waiting. I want more, y'know? I want them to be the best they can be. I mean it's good when you're at the top, but I'm not chasing anything anymore, and I want that rush of having to lift my game because someone's got one over me."

Renee thanks her and moves onto Nick Nemmeth (who shoots a smile at Ary before the camera reaches him), and Ary picks her bag back up. She has a fair idea where Jon is going to be and walks into the almost empty catering room.

"Hey, Jon," she says warmly as she approaches him. "Nice match tonight."

He looks up at her through his fluffy sandy blonde hair and smiles through a mouthful of a sandwich. "How ya' going, Princess?"

Ary rolls her eyes at the nickname and sits down across from him. She eyes his plate, steals a piece of tomato. "Pretty good. Can't complain, right?"

Jon smiles at her and agrees. "Just how it is. Tell you what though, as soon as we get to Ottawa I'm setting up Mortal Combat and I'm going to enjoy kicking Colby's ass."

"If you can beat me first," Ary teases. "Tell you what though, loser shouts breakfast."

"Deal."

Ary chuckles at the memory of teaching Renee how to play properly. "Renee any better at it? Or are you just being rude and beating her every chance you get?"

He rolls his eyes. "If she spent anytime with me, she would." Ary tilts her head, gives him a look. "Oh, no, trust me when I say we're good, but that woman does so much for the company off the books, it's actually a little crazy. I only get to see her a couple of hours a day."

"Well isn't it a good thing that JoJo is taking over Fallout then, huh?" Ary smiles at the tired man in front of her and reaches across to ruffle his hair. "Also, none of Colby or your music tastes during the drive, please. My mind can only take so much metal."

Jon snorts at her, choking out a disgruntled laugh. "Says you who listens to Halestorm on repeat. Big jump from Halestorm to that Ezra guy, isn't it?"

Ary kicks him gently under the table and looks at her phone, putting it away once she's texted Colby to let him know where they were. "Perfection comes in all kinds of voices."

"Sure, sure, say what you want."

There's a moment of silence, and while Jon finishes off the rest of his sandwich, Ary gives him a good once over. "Been a while, hasn't it?"

He simply nods back at her. "Last time I saw you was when I pulled you off of Orton. You were kind of a bitch that night, couldn't believe it when you slapped him."

"Yeah, well, shit happens," is her only reply as she sheepishly stares down at her hands. "Dunno though, I missed seeing your stupid face while I was back home."

Jon acts hurt for a second, then looks up at her through narrowed eyes. "You never did tell me why you took the time off. I mean, apart from the fact that you broke your wrist, you didn't have to leave, yet you did."

"Yeah." Ary takes a deep breath. "Padre was in hospital. Suzanne called me a couple of nights after and told me that he'd been diagnosed with Alzheimer's , but it wasn't like we didn't see it coming. The man's getting pretty old, y'know? It was bound to happen. So yeah, I took some time off to go down to Cali and make sure everything was okay. Took him a while to remember why I was gone…"

When she trails off, Jon gives her foot a reassuring nudge. "He'll be fine. Lived a full life, nothing to be ashamed of."

"He watches this, you know? Watches the WWE. Told me he likes you because you're weird, that he dislikes Colby because he's a spoilt brat."

Jon laughs at this. There's a shuffle and then Colby walks in alongside Renee, smile wide.

"You two talking shit about me?"

Ary smiles brightly at him. "Of course."

He drops his bag, dashes towards Ary, wraps his arms around her to lift her up and over his shoulder. Ary squeals and slaps his ass repeatedly, commanding to be put down. She looks up just in time to see Renee kiss Jon softly, giggling at the sight in front of them.

Colby turns, ducks to pick up her duffle and then his, and calls out for the other two to follow him to the car.

"You got my title, NeyNey?!" Ary yells around the corner.

"Aye aye, ma'am!"

The car ride is short and sweet. Ary drives for the first hour, then lets Colby take the wheel as she slips into the back with Renee. And, as promised, when they get to their hotel in Ottawa, Jon whips out the game and sets up his PS4.

In the end, Colby ends up shouting breakfast.

They wake up the morning after entangled in each other, five hours of solid sleep under their belt, and relax for an hour before realising they actually do need to be functional today.

Colby almost rolls onto Ary. "I don't wanna get up."

"You have training to do," Ary laughs at him. "This is the routine you have set for yourself, this is the routine you must follow."

"No," he replies. "No, I don't have to do anything, right? I can just show up tonight and get assaulted by you and then come back here, right?"

Ary laughs again. "Well you can stay here then. I need to go for a run and do some Pilates."

Colby levels her with burning eyes, crooked smirk forming on his face. "Or you could do Pilates here. In front of me. Naked."

"I could."

Now interested, Colby pushes up onto his elbow and lets Ary slither out from under the covers. She's not wearing a thing apart from cheeky underwear and light taping along her left wrist. He watches as she stretches her arms above her head, lets his eyes trail down the curves of her torso, the shape of her ass, the long line down to her feet.

"Or…" she starts, looking back over her shoulder at him, "You could join me in the shower."

Colby is straight out of bed then, pushing Ary against the wall, the soft skin of her breasts pushing against his bare chest. He kisses her softly and circles an arm around her waist. "Good plan."

They have the water too hot but neither of them really care to change it, and when they emerge, Colby is flushed red in the face and ready for the day ahead of him.

The scheduled match that night for Ary is against Ariane, and Colby has nothing except a contract signing where, according to him, he's set to throw some serious shade. So he heads to the ring with Jon and Joe after his cross-fit session, leaves Ary with the other diva and Renee, and lets the night unfold in the exact way that it should.

* * *

The match between Cameron and Ary wasn't set to happen until Kane got sick of hearing Seth complain about her.

When she hits the stage, the pop is large, the crowd is loud, and Ary feels shivers running up her spine. She's in her usual ring gear, strappy crop top replacing her sleeved top. All black apart from the red sports bra underneath.

The match lasts for a good two minutes of back and forth action before Ary takes control. She lands hit after hit, blow after blow, and climbs to the top rope in preparation of landing a massive drop kick when she feels the hands on her back. She's pushed forwards, lands awkwardly on the ropes, drops to the ground after bouncing off the apron.

Ary clutches at her face as she stares up a Jamie Noble, taps her hand on the floor. When he jumps down, Joe reaches her other side. Both lift her, throw her back into the ring, and wait for Rollins' music to start. And when it does, Ary rolls onto her stomach and watches with a hand still across her jaw.

"Since Kane can't do what is asked of him," Rollins spits into a mic, "Looks like I'm going to have to do this myself."

Ary stands when Seth walks into the ring. She flicks her hair over her shoulder and clenches her fist as she sees him motion to his personal guards.

The J&J Security boys jump into the ring, one on either side of Ary, and stare her down. Cameron has already left, match ended from a disqualification. Ary hisses and ducks under arms reaching to grab her. She slips between the two easily, then backs into something very solid and something very human. Seth Rollins.

She doesn't even have time to react before Seth wraps his arms around her middle, calling the security boys over to grab a hold of her properly. Though she struggles, one kicks the back of her knee in and she falls heavily to the apron.

"Maybe _this_ will make things much clearer," Seth growls into the microphone. He drops it, puts a foot on the back of Ary's neck and pushes her so that she's lying face down. Jamie and Joe have their knees in her back, keeping her from getting up.

Seth's foot is off her neck then as he runs towards the ropes, bounces off them. The J&J boys quickly move to get out of the way, and Ary has just seconds to roll to the side to avoid his boot planting her face into the ground. She feels hands try and grab at her but somehow she slips out of the ring and underneath the apron.

 _"Hale has disappeared under the ring, trying to escape the onslaught from Rollins and J &J Security…_"

Luckily enough for Ary, none of the boys have actually realised her escape had led her under the ring - they look around for her, confused, and Seth Rollins is stomping above her like a child in the middle of a tantrum.

" _Cole, I haven't seen this kind of pure domination from Rollins since he was part of the Shield-"_

Ary finds her weapon of choice, grins to herself as she rolls back into the sight of the arena. There's a stick in her hand as she crawls up behind Seth Rollins.

 _"Look! Look at that, Ary Hale has slipped back out from underneath the ring with a kendo stick in her hand, and Rollins has no idea!_ "

She slams the stick across his back once, twice before the others notice that she's even back in the ring. Jamie marches towards her and receives a swing to the gut, then the back of his head, and Joe swings her around with a hand on her arm, but falls back when the kendo stick hits the side of his neck.

Ary ducks and weaves between the three as she attacks them with all of her strength. She still feels the pain of the fall in her back but grimaces her way through it and turns, pivots, delivers blow after blow until Rollins is on the floor and writhing in pain. She lowers the stick against him again and again and again, driving it into his back, and watches as red welts show up along his smooth, tan skin.

Triple H's music hits, blasts through the arena, and he storms out with a microphone in his hand.

"Ary!" Triple H belts, his figure bolting down the ramp and sliding into the ring. "That is _enough_! You have my word he will leave you alone, but you gotta go get some fresh air, take the night off!"

Ary snarls through her teeth at Triple H as her whole body aches, and then tosses the kendo stick at his feet. She snatches a microphone off of one of the camera men and storms right back up to Triple H.

"You want me to back off?" She growls. "You want _me_ to back off your little precious future? Can he not handle himself? Is that what you're worried about?" She points to Seth's writhing body and backs away from Triple H.

"Ary, you got what you want," he tries to reason, "You got what you want, and if you don't leave, I can promise you that we're going to lay charges."

The diva hisses through her teeth, absolutely _seething_ , and tries to calm down. When she rolls from the ring, she takes the microphone with her and slams her palms into the apron, then runs one through her hair.

And then she's laughing. She turns, stares at Hunter, tilts her head to the side. "If you think that's gonna stop me… you should know me better than that, I'm gonna kill him anyway."

Ary bolts back into the ring, ducks around a livid Triple H, and grabs Seth, twists his arm though hers, throws a leg over his shoulder, locks her other ankle under his chin and against his throat… and locks in Hells Gate. With a vicious scream, Ary throws her head back and listens to Triple H shouting at her. When he takes a step closer, she shakes her head, yells "One more step and I crush his trachea!"

He threatens and threatens her, screaming, "I will _strip_ you of your championship, Ary Hale, _let him go_!"

It's only when Seth covertly runs his fingers along her collarbone that she finally lets go. He falls flat on the mat, grabs his throat and coughs. Triple H looks as red as a fire truck and she slips back out of the ring, bares her teeth at him.

" _Leave_ ," he commands.

And she does.


	6. falling

**just like the last chapter (which took me literally a day to write because i was in such a mood for it), i was SUPER excited to write this one, so if you enjoy it, leave a comment for me :D**

 **also, TALK TO ME ABOUT THE ELIMINATION CHAMBER. please. like holy hell. like what.**

 **also after the last chapter, just another friendly reminder that i do NOT actually know any of the superstars in person, therefore they may be complete opposites of what i write them as, yada yada, you know the drill.**

 **enjoy, my lovelies (also i'm sorry about the length) (also thank you for the comments, though what would really be nice is more)**

* * *

"You have another match against Colby?" Ary asks Randy, almost half way through her lunch while she looks at the card for the night.

"Yep," he affirms. "You?"

"Trinity. I dunno. Something like a match, anyway. Colby comes out halfway through and gets revenge for SmackDown, same old shit."

Randy nods. "You heading back to Good's after the show?"

"Yeah." Ary smiles at him and takes a deep breath. "I haven't seen his sister for a while, so she'll be all over me."

"I'm surprised she's not here, actually. She loves this place. Loves Joe."

"Probably scared of your face."

Orton sends her a glare, but his lips are quick to turn up into a smirk. "Harsh."

"Hardly." She smirks and looks over her shoulder at the over-sized Samoan. "Hey Joe, Allison's afraid of Orton, isn't she?"

The man behind Ary laughs at this and sends a grin over his shoulder. "Of course."

"Wanna step into the ring, go a few rounds?" Randy teases her, snatching the plate of food away from her face.

When time comes for Ary to leave for the arena, she hitches a ride in the back of Orton's bus. Bennett, Stephen and Hager had crowded the area, fighting over controllers to play whatever PS4 game they had set up (it definitely wasn't Mortal Combat, because Ary would have handed their asses to them on a platter). When her phone buzzes, she smiles down at the screen and excuses herself from the argument.

 **From: Colby Lopez**

 **Message Received at 4:53PM**

 **let me know when you get to the arena , got**

 **some singings to do and a kid to meet but**

 **should be done by the time you get here .**

 **xx**

 **To: Colby Lopez**

 **Message Sent 4:55PM**

 **I'm stuck on a bus with Orton, Hager, Stephen**

 **and Bennett. i don't think this could get any**

 **worse, but i wouldn't honestly be surprised…**

 **From: Colby Lopez**

 **Message Received at 4:59**

 **just think of the things i can do to you once**

 **you get here and im sure that will make**

 **everything better ;)**

 **To: Colby Lopez**

 **Message Sent 5:01PM**

 **Hush your damn mouth Lopez I don't have**

 **time to deal with that kinda shit right now**

 **From: Colby Lopez**

 **Message Received at 5:05**

 **ill be waiting in the locker room then for you**

 **princess , fun things await ( like food and**

 **tv shows )**

 **From: Colby Lopez**

 **Message Received at 5:06**

 **actually we can skip the meeting tonight and**

 **instead catch up on the latest GOT episode**

 **ok**

 **To: Colby Lopez**

 **Message Sent 5:07**

 **Sure thing buttercup, whatever you want**

 **xx**

(In the end, Paul ends up pulling them out by the ears so they can listen to Vince's speech about how proud he is of everyone, and they don't even get to watch ten minutes.)

* * *

Ary's in a fantastic mood. She slaps Naomi's ass on her way out of the curtain and then bops up and down to the first part of her song. "Naaa na na na na, naaa na na na na," she's humming to herself when her music hits.

She does her usual pose and then flicks the belt off from around her waist, climbing the turnbuckles and thrusting it in the air for a loud cheer.

"And introducing her opponent and the Divas Champion, from Monterey, California, Ary Hale!"

She hands the belt over to the referee and bounces up and down on her feet, shaking out her arms and legs. When the bell rings, the two divas dash forward and lock up, and Naomi is quick to shove her down into a head-lock and very quick to go flying over Ary's shoulder in a hip toss.

The circle each other again. Ary bolts forward, throws a foot against Naomi's right thigh and then bouncing to do the same to her left thigh. The woman yells in frustration and dashes forward to shove Ary's face away, taunting her as she bounces around the ring to dodge any blows. Ary can already feel the crowd losing interest.

So she bursts out from the middle of the ring and hits Naomi with a clothesline so hard it turns her inside out. The other diva makes quick time to roll out of the ring and gather herself, but when the ref starts counting she slips back in, and walks right into a dropkick that hits her hard in the chest.

Naomi screams and falls against the floor, and when she gets up she's knocked back down with a super-kick to the jaw. The crowd are cheering loudly again now that their favourite is back in power, and Ary's suddenly got this plan in her head that makes her stomach squirm with anticipation.

As she goes for a quick cover on Naomi, she whispers, "Suplex."

Naomi's only reaction is to push her off and groan as she holds her face. Ary stands, pulls Naomi's head up and under her arm. She runs for the ropes, bounces of the second one, about to flip on the third when Naomi wraps her arms around Ary's waist and turns her finisher into a German suplex.

She only just kicks out of the cover. Laying down with her face against the mat, Ary haphazardly throws an arm over the back of her head to hold the spot where her skull bounced off the apron.

Namoi doesn't get the chance to do anymore - Seth Rollins' music has blared through the speakers, the superstar himself walking out seconds later flanked by J&J Security.

Lifting her head, Ary crawls to the ropes on the left of her, looks up with a pained face at the WWE World Heavyweight Champion. And off the distraction, Naomi bolts forward and rolls Ary up, keeping the diva champion down for the three count and then bouncing off in celebration, but Ary is _livid,_ can't believe what's just happened.

She pushes to her feet and hisses as Seth ducks into the ring, but she's still feeling the impact of the suplex and has a hand pressed to the back of her head.

"You and I need to have a talk," Seth yells into the microphone, angry. "Thursday night SmackDown you attacked me and J&J Security with a kendo stick and then held me in Hell's Gate. I have a bruised trachea! I mean, it's a miracle I can even speak!"

"And Triple H won't punish you because _apparently_ I provoked you. So I'm here to even the score. And just because you're a lady doesn't mean that I can't get my sweet justice!"

Pain erupts across Ary's back as a kendo stick is slammed against her bare skin. The crowd is going mental, booing and jeering the J&J boys who are attacking viciously.

She's already hurting, so it doesn't take long before she's on the floor in a ball trying to protect herself. Rollins takes the time to get in a few cheap kicks to her ribs, and then he orders his security detail to retreat.

"Go get a table!" Seth yells into the mic, and then turns and stares down at Ary. "We're gonna teach you a lesson."

Once the table is set up in the ring, Seth pulls Ary up and plops her on top of the turnbuckle, sets his shoulders under her legs so that he can lift her up and off. Her torso is slumped against his face as she hangs in pain and Seth presses a stealthy kiss into her stomach before throwing her down on top of the table in a power-bomb almost reminiscent of those from his days with the Shield.

" _Oh my God! Oh my_ God _! Seth Rollins has…_ broken _Ary Hale in half!"_

 _"Ary Hale has been power-bombed through a table! She's not moving!_ "

Once that she's able to suck the breath back into her lungs, Ary coughs and shifts on the broken table pieces underneath her to curl her body inwards. Her back is _aching_ with the impact and her head is still sore, but she knows that because of her perfect landing, she'll pull up fine.

Seth hisses down the microphone and hovers over Ary's body. "Try and get up from that."

Eventually she does. The referee and the ring side doctors rush to her aid after Rollins walks back the way he came from. She pushes their probing hands away from her body, shakes her head and rolls over onto her stomach to push herself up. The crowd are cheering so loudly for her and her arms feel like jelly, but with the help of Bret - one of the doctors - she's finally back to her feet. The doc doesn't let go of her as she hobbles over to demand a microphone from one of the tech guys, but lets go once she's leaning on the turnbuckles for support.

"Seth Rollins," she says, pain lacing her voice and a dangerous look in her eyes. She can see that the Titantron has changed from a view of the welts on her back to the side of her face, but she doesn't let it distract her. Sucking in deep breaths, Ary tries to form the sentence coherently. "You're going to have to try… a _lot_ harder than that… to make me stay down."

* * *

Ary's escorted to the back by Bret and another man where she's immediately pushed into the medical examiners office.

"I'm fine, I'm fine," she laughs, and even though her eyes are screwed shut, the pain's beginning to edge away. "Seriously, Doc, just give me an ice pack and I'll be good."

The door swings open as Bret is securing the ice pack in place with some large tape and in storms Colby.

"You okay?" Is his immediate question as he comes to grip her hand. "You went through a lot harder than I expected, I didn't mean-"

"I'm fine, Colby," she reassures him with an eye-roll. "Don't you have a match with Randy? Go on, scram."

Colby kisses her softly and then disappears with a swoosh.

Bret sighs as he taps Ary's shoulder. "All good to go, Ary."

She sits up and winces at the cold, then runs her hand along the lump starting to form on the back of her head. "Need more ice, though." He rolls his eyes and tosses a back together and hands it over to her. "Thanks, doc."

Official WWE Network photographers invade the room for photos to post to the site, and Doc looks at her skeptically.

"How many more bumps like this you gonna take?"

Ary shrugs. "Dunno. Tomorrow night I'm knocked off my feet, but it shouldn't be too much of a worry."

He rolls his eyes. "Just do your job and take the landings like a pro and you'll pull up fine. The last thing I want is to have to scratch you for your match against Trinity, okay?"

But like all things, Ary's good run without any injuries comes to a screaming halt during the taping of SmackDown.

* * *

As the Tuesday night rolls on, Ary watches with slight interest as Nikki and Trinity face off in a quick match. She's supposed to go down to the ring during Colby's match against Ryan, cause him a loss. Easy enough.

So she stands at the back curtain with her head on Colby's shoulder, waits for him to get called out.

"You winning tonight?"

Colby nods his head at her, drops a kiss on her black hair. "Of course I am."

"Is it off a distraction?"

He pokes her in the ribs, frowns, pouts his lips. "Why would you say that?"

She laughs at him and turns her lips to his bicep, presses two kisses there and then pushes him to the awaiting hands of the technical team. "Go get 'em, tiger."

* * *

Ary's music blares across the speakers half-way through the match-up, and she holds her hands up as the J&J boys circle around to her.

"You need to leave right now!" Jamie yells at her. "You're not welcome here, Hale!"

"I'm just…" she looks up at the champion who's staring at the exchange. "I'm reconsidering."

The two look at each other, then Jamie looks back at her. "You won't mind if we stay by your side then."

She smiles back at him. "Not at all."

And so the match continues, but Seth is confused and wondering why, all of a sudden, Ary is suddenly friends with his security detail. He doesn't pay attention, is dominated, and the rolls out of the ring to walk over to where the three are standing.

But Ryback follows him.

He runs at Seth, throws an arm up, can't stop his momentum as Seth ducks and his arm hits Ary Hale in the back of the head. She flies face first towards the ground and her head hits the padding with a sharp crack.

 _She wasn't supposed to land like that._

Ryback watches in horror as words reach his ears; " _Ary Hale has been caught by Ryback's clothesline, her head_ bouncing _off the ground on impact, and Cole, I think she's out!_ "

"No, no, no," Seth is murmuring under his breath. He looks up at the camera man, shakes his head, and hears Ryback mutter under his breath to get away. His security boys are pulling him back, shoving him into the ring.

 _"How is she supposed to compete against Naomi this Sunday after that!_ "

There are paramedics coming out and Seth tries not to run over to Ary, to cradle her head in his hands and will all of her pain away, and he can hear his words that he'd said to her over and over, _you could get hurt, why do you want to do this,_ but she had smiled every time and told him not to worry.

His fists are clenched tightly in the black gloves and his hands are beginning to sweat, and even as he turns away to make sure Ryback doesn't jump him while he isn't watching, Seth can't erase the image of Ary's limp figure being manhandled onto a stretcher. He tries a smirk on his face, watches as Ryback drags his hand down his mouth. _At least he doesn't have to pretend he's not devastated,_ Seth thinks bitterly.

Ary had landed wrong from the clothesline. His Ary. He barely participates the rest of the match, uses J&J Security to get him away from the ring and back up the ramp, doesn't even hold his title in the air.

* * *

"Where is she?" Is the first thing he says to Paul as he pushes the curtain back, a wild look in his eyes now that he doesn't have to bother to conceal it. "Paul, where is she?"

"Colby, stop," Paul grabs his arm, stops him from walking. "She's already on her way to the local hospital, we're not taking any risks. What we know right now is that she's still unconscious which means she's not in pain, and we'll get the hospital to call us when she wakes. Best case scenario, she's in for overnight observation with a concussion, okay?"

He nods with the new information runs his hands through his hair, dropping into a squat. "So stupid, so fucking stupid, this is _so fucking stupid,_ Paul!"

There's a hand on his back and comforting words, but Colby can't pay any attention. So he stands, ignores Paul's words until there's a hand on his shoulder spinning him around.

"Where are you going?"

"To the hospital to be with my girlfriend, Paul."

"We have another segment to shoot, Colby, you have to trust that she's being looked after."

Colby puffs his cheeks and blows air harshly through his lips. "I swear to God, Paul, let me go. The promo can be done tomorrow night, okay?"

Paul watches sadly as the superstar scurries off. He'd had tears in his eyes when he'd walked through to the back, and Paul knows how much this man cares about Ary. He grabs his phone out, pulls both Ary and Colby of the upcoming house shows before the pay-per-view. They'd need a lot of time to recuperate and discuss as a couple what their best option was, and Paul wasn't sure he'd like the answer.


	7. breaking

Sitting in the office in Stamford, Ary and Colby are holding hands and waiting for Stephanie and Paul to arrive. Ary had spent the night in hospital, her boyfriend not once leaving her side, not even when a couple of concerned nurses came to check on him, and had been released in the morning.

They'd flown both of them on a private jet back to Colby's house in Davenport, let them recuperate, let them discuss things, let them have the next two days off. On Friday, they were both back travelling again, but this time towards the head office in Connecticut.

"You sure you're ready to do this?" Colby asks her, squeezing her hand softly as he gives a gentle smile.

Ary just nods.

Their conversations had gone something along the lines of Colby making his point very clear. And he was getting his way, but it was something that Ary was comfortable with.

"Jon okay with it?"

"Yeah," Colby gives her a reassuring smile, "He thought it was a great idea."

Paul walks into the office shortly afterwards and sends the couple a soft smile, and Stephanie isn't far behind him.

"How are you doing, Ary?" Stephanie asks. Her face is pulled down in a smile, one of the comforting ones, and Ary thinks it looks a little mocking, but that's just the face Stephanie has.

So she nods and gives a little grin. "A lot better. Don't know why everyone was making a huge fuss, just a little concussion."

Looking at her with a hint of amusement, Paul is quick to get on with things. "So we figured that you called this meeting to give us some news, and I hope it's nothing to serious."

"No, no it's not that bad," Ary laughs. "Colby and I have come up with a little compromise, if you'd like to hear us out?" With no objections, Ary continues. "So we know that heading into the Elimination Chamber, Jon and Colby are going head to head with a 'betrayal' kind of story-line, and Colby thought it would be a good idea to see if I could bring that into action."

Colby takes over and his voice is excited, like a puppy. "I was thinking that Monday, Ary could come out and cut another promo on me, talk about Jon. Not as a manager, but just as two people that have something in common - wanting to stop me and take everything away, y'know what I mean? So we go down that line, take away most of the ugly bumps from Ary, give her decent matches with Trinity and Nicole, throw Paige into the mix the following Raw, something like that."

Stephanie and Paul look amused but not really too put off by the ideas. They look at each other and nod and Stephanie turns to smile at the couple. "Doesn't sound half bad. I'll go talk to the rest of the Creative and see what we can do, and tonight we want you to head back to the main roster and go to the house shows, see how everything is. You have medical clearance for Sunday, right?"

"Yeah," Ary reaffirms, and then she smiles slowly. "I really did enjoy this storyline, Paul, you know I did, and I'm still willing to take a couple of hard hits," she shoots a look to her boyfriend at this, "as long as they come from Colby."

When both parties are in agreement, Colby and Ary leave the building hand in hand.

"So, I was thinking about bringing Kevin along-"

"Seriously?"

He gives her a big cheesy smile and then tugs her into his side. "He misses me."

"He likes me more."

—

 **PAYBACK PAY-PER-VIEW, 2015**

While it seems that Ary has caught a break, no one could have prepared her for what's about to hit her next.

She sits alone up on one of the production boxes Sunday night, getting into the mood and going through her pre-show routine, when her phone rings. Usually, she'd leave it in the dressing room, but tonight she didn't want to let it go.

Her sister's name flashes up on the screen and she answers with brightness bursting through her tone, "Hello, lil' sis!"

The happiness isn't returned. Instead, there's a sniffle, then, "Ary…"

 _Something's not right_. "Suz? What's going on?"

"Uh…" her sister takes a shuddering breath and Ary is off the box and her eyebrows are furrowed. "Dad's not doing too well, Ar."

And her heart drops into her stomach at the same time that it lurches up into her throat. When she speaks, her words are quiet. "What do you mean?"

There's silence on the other side of the line and Ary's breath comes out harder and tears spring to her eyes. "Suzanne, what do you mean that he's not doing too well?!"

"I'm sorry, sis," she whispers, and Ary's heart, where ever it is in her body, breaks. "They can't do anything more for him, Ar. He's on life support, and the doctors think that it might be time to pull the-"

"No," Ary says, "No, no, _no._ Why- why are you even considering this? He can't, he can't go, I'm not ready…"

"You never will be…"

Ary pulls a shuddering breath into her lungs and forces back her panic. "Don't do anything, okay? He'll wake up, he always does."

Ary…"

"I need to go."

And while she held it together when she was on the phone to Suzanne, Ary couldn't do it anymore. She lashes out at anything she can and pounds her fists against the the wall and the production crate, kicking it as well.

Tears flood her eyes and it's a mixture of physical and emotional pain and she can't really tell the two apart. But she's also angry, angry at her father for thinking he can just up and leave her, angry at Suz for even considering pulling him off of life support. _How could she even think it?_

The area has quickly dwindled in numbers and she yells as loud as she can into her hands, then slaps the container as hard as she can, almost in a fit.

"Whoa, whoawhoawhoa _whoa_ ," Colby yells as he walks into her line of site, "Ary, what're you doing, c'mon, settle down, whatever's wrong-"

Ary's still screaming, gripping her hair, tears pouring from her eyes like she can't control her emotions or her headspace. "I can't, I can't, she can't do it with me not there and I-I- I can't!"

His hands wrap around her biceps and though she struggles and flails against him, Colby is still stronger than her by a long way. But it's like as soon as she's restrained and the fight leaves her body, the chaos in her mind leaves as well.

She gradually settles into him, curling against his body and the way he's holding her. Her hands are knotted in his shirt and his arms are wrapped tightly around her waist and he's whispering _breathe, breathe,_ into her ear and somehow this helps. She can feel the air starting to slip back into her lungs as she gulps in big breaths. And slowly the ground comes to meet her as she sinks to her knees.

 _This can't be happening._ She'd seen him not two months ago, been by his side, things can't have escalated so quickly for him to be back on life support. He can't die while she's not there, he can't fucking _die_ without her permission and she isn't granting it anytime soon.

Colby is murmuring into her ear and holding her tightly against his chest and she realises that she still has to go out there and deliver an intense fifteen minute match against Trinity and her soul just _shatters_. She can't do that, not now.

"Baby, talk to me," Colby breathes into her hair. "C'mon, Ar, you can't go out like this."

He's right.

She collapses into his hold and rolls her head back onto his shoulder. His brown eyes look red, like he's holding back his own tears, and slowly Ary presses her lips under his jaw.

"Dad's back on life support," she whispers slowly, "and the doctors and Suzanne want to take him off of it."

The hum reverberates through his body as he finally understands why her reaction had been so horrible. "I'm sorry, princess."

"Yeah," she replies, and Ary sniffs back a deep breath and closes her eyes. "I don't know if I can do this match, Col."

"It might be good for you, Ary. Get you distracted so you don't have to think about it for a little bit, and then when you come back out you can look at it more subjectively."

She snorts at him. "My dad's about to die, what's subjective about that?"

Colby nods at her words, tightens his arms around her waist. "When Gran'ma was in hospital, mom wanted to keep her on life support for as long as possible. Gran had three strokes, each worse than the last one, and by the time the third one rolled around, mom couldn't handle seeing it anymore. I know how hard this might be for you to consider Ar, I get it, y'know what I'm saying? But… for him, for Tony, it's only going to get worse from here on out."

It makes sense, what Colby's saying. And he's right. She needs to get away from the situation for a bit and come back to it when she's less emotionally charged.

He helps her stand and then they embrace in a tight hug, Ary's body shaking as she holds him as tight as she can. There's a cough behind them, and when Ary looks over her shoulder, a concerned Paul is regarding them with a careful expression.

"You right, Ary?" Her boss asks. "Heard that you were freaking out…"

Ary offers a soft smile and shakes her head. "It's Padre."

And Paul understands straight away. He holds his arm out for her and she slinks into the hug, saying a quick thank you before letting him get back to his business.

Slipping his fingers between hers, Colby pulls her along to the locker room so she can get changed into her outfit for the night. She makes him stand there afterwards as she shoulder knocks him, warms her body up, and then Colby watches with a frown as her eyes glaze over before she goes out.

—

"The following contest is scheduled for one fall and it is for the WWE Diva's Championship!"

The crowd cheers a bit, but most have left for a bathroom break. It still dawns on Ary every now and then that people don't really care for the Diva's, but she wants to make them.

"Introducing first the challenger from Orlando, Florida, Naomi!"

The woman under question steps forward to jeers and smiles mockingly at her 'supporters', looks Ary dead in the eye.

"And her opponent from Monterey, California, she's the current WWE Diva's Champion, Ary Hale!"

More cheers. Louder, this time; maybe the crowd isn't as dead as she thinks it is. She steps forward, almost chest to chest with Naomi, and holds the butterfly belt high in the air with every ounce of pride that she can muster.

The bout starts simple enough. They circle each other, lock up a few times.

Ary pulls Naomi into a headlock which passes a minute, but then she's pulled down in a jaw breaker and flies back into the ropes. The other moves forward to try and capitalise. She pulls Ary away from the edge of the apron, but the diva has other ideas. She turns and plants a foot on Naomi's hip, launches her leg up so that she's sitting on Naomi's shoulders. As she leans forward, her weight pulls Naomi down and into a quick roll-up — but the cover is only a two count.

Allowing time to let Naomi back up, they circle each other again. Naomi lurches forward and interlocks her fingers around the back of Ary's neck, then brings her down. As the curvaceous diva falls onto her back, she plants her feet in the woman's stomach and pushes as hard as she can to flip the champion over and off of her, the latter of who lands right on her tail bone.

And then she's on the attack.

Naomi launches herself into the air and hangs for a good while before slamming her calf into the side of Ary's head. The champion pushes herself into the corner and Naomi assaults her with a corner splash.

Trying to find any kind of relief, Ary falls and rolls out of the ring. There's a hand in her hair and Naomi's pulling her up, and Ary has the time to quickly slam her elbow across Naomi's jaw — and that does the trick.

She pulls herself up onto the ropes and bounces off them into a diving clothesline, and Naomi lands square on the back of her head.

The crowd is more involved now, and Ary stands up, yells out at them "Come on!" and then throws her arms out wide. They cheer for their champion loudly and when she's satisfied, Ary turns around and pulls Naomi onto her feet. When the back of her hands hit Naomi's chest, the sound echoes through out the arena.

The face Naomi pulls is hilarious, and Ary finds herself smiling at her pain. She's not sadistic… at least, not yet.

She flies forward in an attempt to deliver another clothesline, but Naomi ducks and picks up her own momentum to bounce off the opposite ropes Ary's rebounded from. They run at each other and launch off the mat, the hard hit of the double cross body leaving them both in a heap on the floor. _Ouch_.

It's slow going as Naomi and Ary try to lift back up onto their feet. Ary has the good foresight to roll away from the woman who is up before her. She slips from the ring and grimaces as she holds her stomach. Ary turns her head to give Naomi the stink eye — but Naomi's unrelenting pace sees her bounce off the far ropes, running to throw herself over the ropes and hit Ary with a plancha so loud the ringside crowd gasps.

Naomi moves to hobble back inside the squared circle and Ary is slow to get up, and when she reaches the ropes, Naomi's hand threads back through her hair. She pulls her neck down on the tope rope, executing a harsh hangman that sees Ary fall from the apron completely and land right on her back.

Dazed, Ary stares up at the bright lights. Her vision swims for a couple of seconds, but she's okay.

Hearing footsteps on the mat next to her, Ary's prepared when Naomi pulls her up. She intends to throw Ary into the ringside steps, but the champion is able to swing the movement into her favour and her opponent goes crashing into the steel steps.

The crowd pops for Ary and she sinks to her knee for a second to recuperate.

When she's standing, she pulls Naomi back into the ring and throws her against the ropes. The woman rebounds and Ary wraps her arms around the diva's midsection, lifting her up to deliver a winding spinebuster.

She pushes her opponent into the turnbuckles when she manages to get back up, but out of instinct, Naomi turns and grabs the top ropes to launch up. She lands her ankles on Ary's shoulders — Ary knows that she's planning to go for her signature Bootylicious move, so she's quick to wrap her wrists around the ankles on her and jumps back to tug Naomi away from the ropes. The diva lands face first on the mat.

Momentum is now in Ary's favour and she intends to keep it that way.

Slipping out of the ring and dragging Naomi with her, she rushes the woman spine first into the barricade not one or twice, but three times, and all in different spots.

Ary moves them back into the ring and the cover isn't successful - Naomi kicks out at the last second.

And the look on Ary's face shows that she shouldn't have. Because it's only going to get worse from here on in.

She clutches onto Naomi's arm without blinking and pulls her into the famous kimura lock. Naomi screams in pain and thrashes around, but ultimately reaches the ropes before she has to tap out.

In the next thirty seconds, Ary closes the match out. She locks her arm around the back of her opponents head and runs at the turnbuckle. She plants a foot on the second one, flips over Naomi, and pulls her down in an inverted DDT.

The referee's hand hits the mat one, two, three, and Ary's music sounds over the speakers to signify her win.

" _And in convincing fashion, John, Ary Hale has undoubtedly shattered all concerns for her health with her win over a_ game _Naomi."_

—

Ary, absolutely exhausted, walks backstage and right into the arms of Jonathan Good. He hugs her tightly and she almost collapses into his embrace, and when he pulls away and receives more hugs from both Joe and Randy, she knows that they know about her father.

 _Of course they know_. It's not like Ary was quiet about her fit, in fact, she was the exact opposite.

Colby is the last to wrap his arms around her.

It's fitting that they have their match after the next one, which means they have time to spend with her, but she doesn't feel like talking and just wants to go back to the hotel room and cry.

"I talked to Paul while you were out there," Colby whispers into her hair. "Wednesday and Thursday we don't have anything, so we can fly out to Cali and sort it out, yeah? Together?"

She nods and lets him walk her back to the dressing room.

When he goes to leave, she wraps a hand around the back of his neck and pulls him into a tantalising kiss, moves her lips slowly against his and then presses her forehead to his.

"I love you, Colby."

"Love you too, Ar."

* * *

 **sorry about the wait for this one, guys! was kinda over taken by my dean/oc fic (check that out if you haven't already!), but managed to get through some major writers block for this one :)  
if you enjoyed it (doubtful with the emotions, unfortunately), let me know in the comments section - in saying so, thankyou _BellaRayne_ , _Seth rollins babe_ , _Raquel the writer_ , and _Amnbama_ for the comments for the previous chapter, you guys are the bomb diggity.**


	8. planning

**RAW, May 18th**

 **Richmond, Virginia**

They've both retained their titles, though Ary with less help from outside interference when compared to Colby.

It's 6PM and Ary has her legs thrown across Colby's lap and her head on his shoulder as they sit in silence. She's massaging his hands with a soothing cream that's supposed to help with torn, blistered skin. If it hurts, Colby doesn't say anything.

She inches her head forward to press a kiss against his neck, but knows that she can't do much more because of the constant presence of cameras that might just pick it up.

Ary shifts, moves so that she's straddling his waist, and pushes her fingers through his fluffy hair as she kisses him.

"You know how much you mean to me, yeah?" She breathes against his mouth.

Colby's dark eyes are hooded, but he grins and wraps his arms around her waist. "I have an idea…"

Humming her approval, she bends to kiss him once more before getting off him completely. They have a promo to shoot, of course, and they need to go do that now — as well as welcome back Stephanie.

—

Ary waits at the curtains, rolls her shoulders back. She's not wrestling tonight, so she's wearing dark ripped jeans, heeled Timberlands, her usual red sleeveless hoodie.

When her cue is given, Ary prances into the room. Stephanie, Hunter, Kane, J&J Security, Seth… they're all there. They look at her like she's lost, but Seth's smile gives away the fact that he's happy she's there.

"Ary-"

"Couldn't help but, uh, watch your win last night, Seth," Ary interrupts, smirk heavy on her face. She turns to Kane, then to the married couple. "If I didn't know any better, I'd think that mommy and daddy didn't trust you to get the job done, that they had to take out an insurance policy that goes by the name of J&J Gremlins and the big, retired, out of shape chihuahua here."

Kane growls at Ary, and Stephanie and Hunter don't look impressed. Actually, none of them do. She swiftly takes the bottle of champagne out of Seth's hands and sniffs it, blanching at the smell, and turns it upside down to pour out onto the ground. And now they all look _mad_.

"But hey, that's none of my business, right?" Ary laughs and widens her eyes, shrugs her shoulders. "I mean, what right do I have coming in here and running my mouth? But, you know, you _did_ curb stomp me through the mat… power-bomb me through a table… attack me with kendo sticks… I dunno, Seth, you _really_ want me to join the Authority, don't you? Diva's Champion and WWE World Heavyweight Champion, working together as the future of the WWE!"

She throws her arm up, almost whacks Kane in the face. "I can see it now, sold out arenas, screaming fans… And I can also see myself breaking your weak, pathetic spine with a steel chair."

Seth is glowering at her, the boys behind him posed to attack. "Anyway, enjoy your night."

—

They're in the middle of their 'Architect of a Dream' celebration, talking Seth Rollins up like he's their own son. Kane's in charge of organising a little video dedication, but he doesn't know that Ary has completely changed it.

So just before he points at the screen, she struts out with the Diva's Championship belt fastened around her waist, and she's got this little smirk on her face because she can't _wait_ to see everyone's reaction.

She forgoes her entrance and plays with the microphone in her hands, stays up on the stage and waits for the crowd to die down.

"Seth Rollins, best for business?" Ary laughs and paces the stage slowly, her long brown hair falling over her tanned shoulders.

"Ary Hale, you have _no_ business being out here," Seth hisses with the mic at his lips. "This is the celebration, _Architect of a Dream_ , this is for me!"

"Oh, but it's only fair that I show my gratitude as well, right?" Ary shrugs at the fans who are cheering for her, but a lot of them are wondering where she's going with this. "That little video that you put together Kane? Well, hate to break it to you, but it just wasn't up to scratch. I took the courtesy of _personally_ adding a few clips in, just to show how _thankful_ I am that Seth Rollins has taken the time out of his life to try and ruin mine."

She turns around and motions at the screen, and then the lights in the arena go dark as the focus is put on the massive titantron behind her.

It starts out with the outline of Seth's body, Hunter's voiceover booming through the arena. She hasn't really changed much, but her part comes at the end.

When the lyrics to the hard hitting background song say "let the wolf out", the titantron is covered in a static, snowy noise pattern. Then, her voice is all the arena can hear; "Seth, you don't even own that championship around your waist; the Authority does. You're their own little puppet… you don't even own yourself."

The screen changes to show Ary holding him in Hells Gate, his face contorting in pain, Hunter's face red in anger, and then it switches again to show her driving the kendo stick into his back over and over again. Then, she was slamming her hand into the mat three times for the pin that Randy had picked up over Seth a couple of weeks ago.

Her face fills the titantron then, smirk heavy as she stares down the camera lens. "As your Diva's Champion, I'm not going to sit by and watch some spoilt _brat_ waltz around this company like he owns it."

The view pans to the left and the crowd _screams_ as they see the man standing next to her, smirking and chewing gum.

"You see, Dean Ambrose and I now have a common enemy. You stabbed him in the back in a deal with the devil, you called him a business partner. You want a business deal, Seth Rollins? _This_ is how it's done."

The image on the large screen above Ary's head slowly fades to black, and when the lights come back on to the sound of his music, Dean Ambrose is standing next to her with an arm thrown across her shoulder. The pop for him is so loud she can't hear herself think.

Ary hands her microphone to Dean Ambrose and together they walk down to the ring.

"You've got a hellova lotta nerve to come in this ring with all of us in here," Stephanie deadpans, glaring at both her and the man standing next to her.

Dean laughs, drops his arm from Ary's shoulder as she moves to lean back against the ropes. "Sorry I'm late to this little love fest, I was out looking for the _perfect_ Justin Bieber album for Seth."

And when a Justin Bieber chant sounds, Ary can't help but cackle.

"But I couldn't find one, so _instead_ what I'm gonna do for this little celebration… I'm gonna give you another opportunity for a match with me." He pauses, looks back over his shoulder and shares a dimple smirk with Ary. "So long as, y'know, the WWE World Heavyweight Championship is on the line."

Seth laughs at him, steps forward. "What don't you understand, _Ambrose_? This is **_my_** moment, alright? No _business_ deal with a _wolf_ can get you your match, this is for me, Seth Rollins, Architect of a Dream! However, it seems to me that you're the one who is dreaming if you think you can get another shot at my title. I _told_ ya! You're at the _back of the line_ with Roman Reigns and Randy Orton, a'right?"

Rocking forwards on the balls of his feet, Dean lifts the microphone to his mouth once more. "Yeah, unfortunately, I'm a notorious line jumper." He pauses and his voice drops, enunciating each word slowly. "I want my championship match… or else."

"Who do you think you are, coming into this ring and making _demands_?" Stephanie looks over her shoulder at the champion. "Seth's right, you've done nothing to earn yourself a WWE World Heavyweight Championship match, as a matter of fact you lost just last night."

Ary quickly steps forward and raises a microphone — that one of the stagehands had slipped into her hand — to her mouth.

"Actually, Stephanie, I think you'll find that tweedle-dee, tweedle-dumb and cheese-puff chihuahua over there," Ary motions to the J&J boys and then Kane, "are behind Seth's win."

"You should learn to hold your tongue, Miss Hale," Stephanie hisses. "But I tell you what, Dean, Seth is a _fighting_ champion. And he _won't_ be intimidated by your threats." She taps his chest, smiling victoriously. "Seth, get'im!"

Ary quickly moves to the turnbuckles as the Authority step backwards. The brawl is quick to break out, but J&J are quick to jump in, and the altercation moves outside the ring. She stands back and watches with a grin as Dean takes on all three, as Dean slips off the black sheet that's covering the cinder blocks beside the announcers table.

"Stephanie, it's uncanny how what goes around comes back around, isn't it?" Ary says as Dean pulls Seth down onto the blocks, chair above his head in a threat to Seth's safety. "Your precious little _Architect of a Dream_ is about to have his head caved in, Stephanie, so how about you reconsider your answer?"

"No, no, no, no, _no, no!_ **Stop!** " Stephanie is screaming down the mic and the only thing Ary can do is laugh. " _ **Stop!**_ " Dean fakes a move, and Stephanie finally gives in. " _Alright, fine_ , listen, listen! Let him go- let him go and we'll give you the WWE World Heavyweight Championship match! Let him go and you got it, you got it! Let him go! _Let him go!_ "

And as soon as Dean gets what he wants, things refuse to go in his favour. He's outnumbered and suffers because of it, eventually falling victim to a curb stomp from the man he'd just threatened.

Ary hasn't moved from her spot though. She's leaning against the turnbuckle and Seth turns on her, lips pulled back in a snarl. He points at her, takes a threatening step forwards, and Ary lifts the mic to her lips.

"What you gonna do, Rollins? Stomp my head into the mat?" She laughs at him and slips out, launches over the barricades. "It's not the first time Ambrose has been beaten up, it's not the last time he'll be beaten up, and when Elimination Chamber rolls around, I'm sure he'll be more than happy to return the favour. Enjoy your nightmares, Rollins, because they'll be like dreams to me."

—

"You enjoyed that, didn't you?"

Ary smiles up at Jon and pulls Colby in closer to her chest. He's snoring gently in the spacious car they'd hired out, and Renee is sleeping in the front seat. Jon is at the wheel, singing along softly to an 80s radio station he'd found, and that left the two of them awake.

"I love being a rebel with a cause," she laughs quietly. "It's awesome."

He hums his approval, but his eyes signify that he's not really wanting to talk to her about the show. She purses her lips, raises an eyebrow at him.

"Your dad…" Jon looks back at the road and his shoulders raise in a shrug. "Colby didn't really say much, but I get what's happening, Ary. I'm so sorry that we can't do anythin' to help, but I'm more sorry that you have to be here, without him."

Her smile is soft. "Colby's given me a lot of space over the past twenty-four hours. He's not pushing me, he's letting me think about it. I'm so, _so_ lucky to have him in my life, Jon, and you too, and I don't know what I would do or how I would survive without you guys supporting me." She takes a deep breath, looks out the window and into the darkness. "I've seen Padre when he's like this, and if this is what the rest of his life is going to be like… maybe it is time to say goodbye, y'know?"

Jon drops the conversation there, and Ary smiles at him in appreciation. They're travelling to Norfolk and it's a long drive, but they'd rather get there at 3am and have a couple little naps here and there then try and drive in morning traffic.

Dropping a kiss on Colby's head, Ary gently rests her head on the window and peers out into the darkness.

When she goes to Monterey on Wednesday morning, she knows exactly what she's going to do. Her father is old, much older than her mom, and he's lived a full life. And she has to respect his choices as well.

"If I become a vegetable, Ary, you listen to me; you turn it off and you let me go, okay?" He'd said to her before she'd left for the road. "You and Suzy, you won't always have me around, so you gotta be ready for it, you hear me?"

And now it's happening. And Ary can't even begin to imagine her life without him. But she's gonna have to learn how to cope real fast, recognises that.

Colby's hand tightens in hers and she smiles down at her man. He's so gentle, so perfect for her, just enough of a nerd and a music freak, just enough of a fitness nut. Like how a final piece fits in a puzzle, that's how she feels about Colby. He was it. He's her everything.

—

By the time Ary wakes up the next morning, wanting to get ready to hit the gym and get some breakfast, she's had three hours of sleep. _If_ that.

But that's the life on the road and Ary knew what she was singing up to when she placed her signature at the bottom of that contract three years ago. And the plus side is that she gets to wake up to the hottest piece of ass next to her every single day without fail.

Ary shifts in the hotel bed, throws a leg over one of Colby's. She presses her lips against his toned shoulder and gazes up at his sleepy face with heated eyes. He's still fast asleep, snoring softly, and Ary shifts her hips against the side of his body.

"Baby," she breathes slowly, "Colby…"

Ary grinds up into his side again and drags a hand down over his briefs, softly groping the growing erection. He groans and lifts a hand to drag it down over his face, the peeks an eye open to stare at Ary.

"Ary," he murmurs, breath still slow and heavy.

"Morning, sleepy head," Ary drawls, lifts on her elbow to press a tantalising kiss against his lips.

"All I heard there was head."

Ary glares at him softly and reaches up further to kiss along his stubbled jaw, but his arms snake around her hips and he shifts her on-top of him. Messy dark hair topples over Ary's shoulders and the light streaming through the window catches on a few strands, ignites them in a dark brown. Tanned hands planted on his chest, she rolls her hips backwards.

"I'm awake, I'm awake," Colby almost surrenders, but he's smirking as well — he enjoys being woken by Ary's sex drive.

She presses down into his body and kisses him again, slow, lazy, sensual, tongue and lip biting until Colby is hard and full against her ass and his face is pulling into a frown. Her bare breasts are pushed against the soft hair of his chest and Colby sighs into her mouth as she shifts into another roll.

Calloused hands move to grip Ary's ribs, rough thumbs brushing along the curve of her chest as she arched into his touch.

He moaned as she bit down on his lip again and then he flipped them, rushing the breath from Ary's lungs in a quick movement of limbs and exploring hands. Quickly, Colby situates a pillow under her hips, knows that she experiences a better orgasm with the adapted position, and Ary can feel her toes curling in anticipation of what's to come.

But Colby's mouth is still against hers in an open-mouthed, gasping kiss.

Their bodies are moving into a haze of pleasure, her hips rocking up into his brief-clad crotch, his rough hand cupping her breast and rolling a nipple between his fingers. Ary moans loudly into his mouth as he jolts his hips into hers harshly.

Both of their under garments are gone very quickly and with a ground-shaking thrust, Seth is buried deep inside of Ary and her eyes are rolling back in pleasure. He hooks an elbow around the bend of her knee and pulls her long leg up, the new position pushing his thrusts deeper into her body.

Ary's voice is trembling with his name, the word coming out over and over again as his hand reaches down to rub her clit, and Colby's head falls into the dip of her shoulder as she tangles her fingers in the blonde streak of his hair. The long stubble along his jaw tickles and scratches skin, adds a whole new layer of feeling to comprehend. Her breath is coming out in pants and she doesn't even think she can last much longer when Colby's teeth sink into the muscle at her neck.

Her whole body is overtaken with a vocal orgasm, legs quivering, eyes screwed shut and mouth dropped open. Colby takes the opportunity to drive his mouth down into hers, kisses her through the blinding climax.

When he finishes, he rolls off of her and pulls her on top of him, arms wrapping tightly around her waist and face complacent and blissful.

He looks like a God. Hard and sculpted in all the right places, beard which is scratchy yet soft at the same time, hair fluffy and messy and unbrushed, chocolate brown eyes which stare at her like she's his everything.

"I love you," Ary breathes into his neck as she drops her head.

"Love you too, bub."

* * *

 **realised i haven't done a scene between these two since like chapter four or something crazy, so here we go :)**

 **also im super sorry about the time it took to get out, i haven't really been feeling this story lately and im pedantic when it comes to writing, so i just left it until it felt right. my gran-uncle passed away last week and it made it very difficult to write this, so i might just skip one of the scenes i had planned for the next chapter, don't know yet.**

 **a HUGE thank-you to the commenters - Raquel the writer** (you're the bomb) **, Bajor10** (probably going to try and include that in the next chapter:) ) **, Khaaaaaaan** (HE'S SUCH A CUTIE I LOVE HIM TO BITS) **, Seth rollins babe** (you're awesome) **, and my guest reviewer** (always amazing! i am a flawless pug and so is this story :3)

 **if you're interested, chuck a look to my twitter (i dont really post about my stories but im cool(sometimes)) flawlesspug, and check-out my Dean/OC fic (centred around the shield boys as well).**


	9. living

**One Year Ago;**

 **RAW, May 19th, 2014**

 **London, England**

"Ohhhh," Ary hisses, watching a monitor as Colby Lopez eats a spear from Batista. "That didn't look right…"

Nikki shifts on the seat next to her, moves her gaze from her phone to the TV. "He's so stale, I don't know why Paul's let him back in."

And, well, that's a lie — they both know he's back in to promote his upcoming movie, just like The Rock does whenever he has a blockbuster coming out. Evolution had regrouped once the universe had decided it was _dislike_ they felt for the returning superstar, and had then been thrust upon the new, future carriers of the WWE brand; The Shield.

"Hope he's okay…" the diva trails off, "he's holding those ribs a bit."

Nikki giggles next to her, plants a gentle elbow in her side. "You should go check up on him, have some more intense eye sex, yeah?"

Ary rolls her eyes. "Shut up, Nikki, we don't need the cameras picking that up."

"See, you don't even deny it anymore! You like him!"

The slap that Ary plants on Nikki's arm echoes around the small 'Female Talent' room.

But Nikki _does_ have a point. If she's so worried, she should just go and check up on the poor guy, see whether he's okay. Ary hums and squeezes Nikki's shoulder in a goodbye as she moves off in the direction of Doc's set-up, dark eyes darting around the tunnels of the O2 Arena as she tries to navigate her way.

And she hears them before she sees them.

"Dude, that does _not_ look good," Joe Anoa'i says. "You need to go see Peaches or something, get that checked out."

"No way, just because that oompa loompa can hit a spear doesn't mean that he's hurt me—"

" _Dude._ You're _bruising_."

"I bruise all the time—"

"Seriously, man," Jonathan Good interrupts, "Get that shit looked at."

When Ary rounds the corner, Colby is holding his top up and staring down at the bruise forming across his torso, his face contorting with pain as he prods the area.

"That doesn't look too good."

All faces snap around to where Ary has her hands stuffed into her jean jacket, smile sincere as she gazes across at Colby. She's still in her ring gear from a segment earlier in the night, but all Colby's really staring at are her eyes.

"Uh…" he can't find his words, and Ary fights off a smile. "I mean— it's not that bad."

"It looks horrible, Colby," Ary laughs, sharing a look with Joe. "Is he always this stubborn?"

She moves closer, hyper aware of exactly where Colby is in relation to her, but she doesn't give him the justification of looking.

Next to him, Joe smiles. "He doesn't usually have an out of shape wrestler try and spear tackle him to the ground."

Ary grimaces and then looks back at Colby, who's warm brown eyes are still wide. "I saw, it looked like a tough hit."

"Tough doesn't even be _gin_ to cover it, Ary," Jon sighs in annoyance. "This guy hasn't wrestled properly since 2010, he's out of shape and we're putting out lives in his hands every night."

"You watched my match?"

Colby's voice is small but Ary still hears him and nods, then looks back over her shoulder. People are milling past in preparation to pack up the building now that the show is done and the halls are becoming a little too crowded for Ary's liking.

"I better head off," she murmurs, catching the glint of sadness flash in Colby's eyes. "You should go get that checked out. I mean, I would, if I were you."

She doesn't give the superstar a chance to reply, turns and says her goodbyes to his two stablemates, is about to walk off when she takes a deep breath and spins on her heel again. Now or never, right?

So when she spins back around, Colby is still sitting on the plastic table and is staring at her expectantly. Joe and Jon share a peculiar glance with each other.

"Hey, Colby…" Ary pauses. "Do you wanna go out on a date with me sometime?"

Colby jumps off the table he's sitting on so fast that it's toppled over and on the ground before he can catch it, and his limbs flail as he tries to get it standing, blonde streak spilling over his shoulder. He snaps his head back around to see whether she'd seen anything. And she had.

Ary tries to smother her laughter with an inconspicuous hand. "I'll take that as a yes."

"Uh— yeah, yeah, I'd love— I mean, it would be great—"

"Dude…" Joe looks at his friend in pity and has a dorky looking grin on his face.

Looking back at her, Colby seems to gain some composure as he straightens. "Sure."

Ary smiles brightly at the nervous man and then nods her head, biting her lip as her eyes fall to the floor. "You choose the date, just let me know."

 **SmackDown, May 19th, 2015**

 **Norfolk, Virginia**

They're at a sushi restaurant and Colby's hands are completely torn apart from a gruelling cross fit session, Ary's mixture of antiseptic cream and Dermabond working wonders for his skin.

"So, what's the plan for tonight?" Ary asks slowly, moving a piece of sushi around on her plate. "How do I distract you from being distracting?"

He nudges her foot under the table shrugs, plops a piece into his mouth. "Dunno."

"You're helpful," Ary rolls her eyes and finally dunks the salmon piece into a bowl of soy sauce. He just smiles at her.

Colby turns around in his seat suddenly and Ary frowns, can't really see what he's doing. She shoves the piece of sushi into her mouth and chomps on it gently while Colby fumbles with whatever he's doing. And when he turns around, Ary almost chokes on her laughter.

He has the chopsticks in his mouth, hanging delicately between his upper lip and his canines. He wriggles his eyebrows, leans his head back into a double chin. "Sssssabertooth," he drawls, and wriggles his eyebrows again.

With a hand slapped over Ary's mouth, she struggles to regain her composure and says, "You are _so,_ so lame."

"We both figured this out a _loooong_ time ago, Ary Hale," her boyfriend says softly as he takes the chopsticks from his mouth. He glances around the empty catering room and then ducks forward to brush his lips against hers. "So, I know this hasn't been the easiest month for you…"

"Why do I sense a but coming?"

" _Buuut_ ," Colby drawls, grinning softly. "I was thinking that I want to give you something to make you a bit happier—"

Ary tilts her head and stares at Colby through narrowed eyes. "What have you done?"

"Stop being so suspicious, will ya?" He takes out a little envelope from his back pocket and raises his chocolate eyes to stare gently at his girlfriend. "Halestorm are in Chicago next week, and I _may_ have gotten you some tickets—" And before Colby can even finish speaking, Ary is screaming in delight, launching herself at him in a hug.

"You're the bomb," she murmurs into his shoulder.

"I know."

—

Just because Ary and Dean have decided to work together doesn't mean that she goes out with him to start off the night. Instead, she stays back.

In fact, Ary Hale isn't on screen until the show hits the forty minute mark.

Her music hits half-way through the segment between Paige and Naomi. Within the woman's division, while Ary had been… _pre-occupied_ , the divas had been scrabbling to take opportunities to one up each other and push themselves as the number one contenders.

The crowd cheers wildly for their champion and the women both on the ramp and in the ring stare at her like she's out of place.

"So, while I've been dealing with some… _personal_ business, you lot have been running your mouths like I can't hear you." Ary walks down the ramp and sends a little wave to Tamina and Naomi as she passes them. "But here's the thing — I _can_ hear you, loud and clear. In fact, Naomi, I _beat_ you last Sunday at Payback. So swallow the words you're saying because they don't matter, _you_ don't matter in this title picture anymore."

The champion enters the ring, sizes up Paige as she comes face to face with the Brit. "And Paige, I've _missed_ you. No, really, I have, because who's going to get my ducks in line for me?" Ary laughs, tilts her head. "We used to be friends before you stabbed me in the back to try and win _my_ championship back in November. But here's my issue — while I've been busy with that diva that calls himself Seth Rollins, I've been missing out on all the _fun_ that our division offers!"

Paige steps forward, but Ary slaps the microphone out of her hands and the crowd 'ooohs' in response. "Listen to what I have to say, Paige. You and Naomi? If you can beat her, you can have a shot at my title at Elimination Chamber. That sound fair to you?"

And really, Paige doesn't look too put off by the idea, but by the way her eyes widen and she takes a step back, Ary knows that Naomi is not impressed. She ducks before Naomi can land an elbow in the back of her head and makes quick time to roll out of the ring, laughing as Paige makes her own move.

As quick as she's slipped out, Ary rolls back in and pushes Tamina away from the pale woman, following up with a swift kick to the stomach. She locks her arm around the back of Tamina's neck and runs for the turnbuckles, plants her foot on the middle and then the top and flips over the other divas body in her finishing Shiranui.

When she looks up, Paige has planted a Paige Turner on Naomi. Ary stands and taps the title around her waist, smiles at her next number one contender, and then exits the ring.

—

The next time she's on screen, she hasn't changed from her ripped skinny jeans, chunky boots, or her trademark red sleeveless hoodie, but she has changed tactics.

The match up is Dean Ambrose and Bray Wyatt, and while it doesn't happen until out of no where the three gremlins arise, Ary quickly dashes from her position in the closed off time keepers area.

Jamie Noble has crawled to the top rope to try and cause a distraction, but instead of pushing Dean into Bray Wyatt's waiting hands, he gets pushed to the apron at the hands of the Diva's Champion.

The WWE World Heavyweight Champion waltzes out from the back, his face contorted in an frustrated frown, and Ary sends a little wave of her fingers. The audience boos so loud that she lets out a little bit of a laugh, but then kicks Jamie in the stomach to keep him grounded for the time being.

But then Roman Reigns' music blares through the arena and her full-blown smile flashes across the tron. Grabbing a chair from under the ring, Ary walks around the side of the squared circle to stand in front of Joey Mercury and Seth Rollins.

When Reigns finally lands beside her, he throws an arm over her shoulder and the crowd goes _nuts_. Ary smirks at Seth as Dean picks up the win, _one, two, three_ ,

The two men standing before them dash forward.

Seth is after Roman, Joey running at Ary, and she brings the chair into his stomach before slamming it down onto his back, and then the steel weapon is on the floor as she drops to her knees, punching the security detail over and over again until there's a hand under her arm and Roman Reigns is yanking her away.

Ambrose's theme hits the speakers and she stumbles back in the arms of the large Samoan.

The tron picks up the smile on her face as well as the smug grin on Roman's, and Dean isn't far behind them as he yells "you ain't the only one with some backup!"

The night ends in a quick dark match, and then Ary Hale retreats to the back.

—

"You ready to head home?" Colby asks as he walks into the female talent locker room, the large area completely devoid of life apart from Ary.

She gives a slow nod, chucks a loose black top on over her sports bra and then shoves a hat onto her head. "Yeah. Gotta go do what I need to, right?"

He gathers her up in his arms, presses his lips against her head. "I know you're not looking forward to it—"

"No shit."

"—but you gotta think that maybe it's the right thing to do, yeah?"

Ary sighs against him. "Taking my father off of life support is not the right thing to do."

"Ary, nothing good is gonna come out of this, I know that, but you have the choice to either end your fathers suffering or tell him to keep fight it."

Her voice shrinks and when she speaks, it's soft as a mouse. "We're talking about my dad here, Colby."

Colby pulls away and Ary's bottom lip is jutted out, tears brimming in her eyes. "Oh, babe…" he sighs, pulling her into another bone crushing hug. "I know, sweetie, I know this will be the hardest thing you've ever done, but your dad will be in a better place, okay? He'll be happy again."

"I don't wanna say goodbye…" Ary cries softly into his shoulder. "I'm being so selfish, but he's all I got left."

"Ary Carolyn, don't you _ever_ say that," Colby scolds her harshly, pushing her away by the shoulders but staring deep into her dark eyes. "I know that you haven't talked to your brother since he moved to Australia and that you don't talk to Suzanne _at all_ , but you have so much more than just your father, alright? You've got Randy and you've got Paul, Nick, Jon, even Joe and Nikki — you have _me_. None of us are blood, but we're your family, okay?"

Ary's lips are quivering and tears are streaming down her face, and she's _so, so_ tired of being sad, but she knows that Colby is right. Her boyfriend pushes a kiss against her head and then against her lips, and she back in his arms in another hug.

"I love you so much," breathes Ary, lips pressing against his neck.

And then Colby pushes Ary back again, lets go of everything but her hands, and drops to one knee.

Very suddenly, Ary stops breathing.

Colby is staring up at her openly and lovingly, his chocolate brown eyes glinting in the light, hair tied back in a low bun, he looks so unprepared for the moment, but he still looks so sincere.

"Ary Carolyn Hale, I have loved you from the moment I knocked over that table. I've loved you with everything that I am, I've given you my heart, and for some stupid reason, you've loved my nerdiness, my crossfit mentality, my dogs, my life, and me. I am so, _so_ lucky to call myself your boyfriend, but I want to be more than that."

"Colby…" Ary doesn't know what to say, but the tears are streaming more so, now.

He just shakes his head and pushes on. "I was gonna wait until our one year, but I need to do this right now. I want a family with you. I want little mini-me's running around and pulling on Joe's hair, pocking Jon in the eye, grabbing Nikki's boobs—" Ary laughs at this, "— Ary, I want you to be the mother of my children, and it doesn't have to be this year or next year or the year after that, it can be once you're ready, because I will always love you."

Colby takes a deep breath and gives a little smile. "And the timing couldn't be more perfect. I want to get married before you turn off your father's life support, I want him to be there when we get married and see your happiness because that's all he's ever wanted, Ary… I know how much he means to you."

Ary drops to her knees so that her eyes are level with his, but she's beginning to smile and her tears are now because of joy. "But Col, you wanted a big ceremony and to make it special—"

"Anything that makes you happy will be special, Ary," he smiles gently. "I know we've talked about it, but I'm serious, Ar, I want to do this for you and your dad. We can do a Catholic marriage whenever you're ready and have a big ceremony, but I want your dad to be there and I want you to be happy."

And _holy shit_. Colby is a real person, he's her boyfriend, her _fiancé_ , her everything, and how can she say no?

"Of course I'll marry you!"

She rocks forward into his grip and smashes her mouth against his, smiling and all teeth and they both giggle ecstatically as they hug.

"What have I ever done to deserve you, Colby Lopez?"

* * *

 **happy sad, happy sad, happy sad i say to myself as i bawl my eyes out. wow. okay. so, this chapter was hard for me to write for a number of reasons and I'm BEYOND sorry for the wait, but i think this update will make up for it. massive that you to T for giving me the idea to get this chapter rolling, took me just three days to finish off after like a week of doing NOTHING for it.**

 **thank-you to Raquel the writer** (you rock!) **, Bajor10** (possibly! it depends on what happens after they get married :) ) **, and T** (I CRY EVERYTIME THEY DO SOMETHING CUTE, like im writing Colby as the _perfect_ boyfriend/fiancé and i'm getting jealous, i want one :( im so glad you gave me the inspiration to write this one, so thank you!)

 **i was originally aiming for 10 chapters, but we'll see :) depends on how I feel after I write the next one. anyway, drop a comment, give me love, and i'll love you back!**


	10. committing

When Ary walks into her fathers hospital room, he's off of life support, functioning, and she thinks that it's a God send he's still kicking. She doubts he'll make it a third time, though.

She tells his nurses as such. "Next time he's back on life support, my father wants you to turn it off. He's ready to go, we're ready to let him go."

Colby is proud of her for being so strong, but what he doesn't know is that the strength he has is helping her immensely. She wouldn't be able to do this if it weren't for him.

Together, they fly into Monterey early Wednesday morning. Ary's in contact with a local marriage officiant while they're waiting for their luggage, offering a generous tip in order for the small ceremony to take place in the hospital room.

In the afternoon, she's out shopping for a suitable dress. It's not the usual wedding dress, all white and sparkly, but it's her and it's absolutely gorgeous.

She's on the phone with Nikki most of the afternoon, face-timing her closest friend, asking for opinions on how she should look.

In the end, both of them settle on a dress with a light orange crochet top, a gentle white, floral patterned skirt that falls to the floor. Nikki suggests to match it with a pair of white block mules, some nude lipstick and a gentle application of natural looking makeup.

"I wanna be there, Ar," Nikki sighs down the line. "Photos, okay? Lots of photos, I need them as soon as you finish. And buy one of those gorgeous headbands that has a little veil, so Colby can take it off before he kisses you."

Ary smiles and continues her walk back to her apartment. "You're such a romantic, Nik."

"Have you got the ring yet?"

"No, Col is going to give it to me with the wedding band."

"Sounds like he's the romantic then, Ary Hale. Or should I say Mrs Lopez."

"Shut up, Nicole, otherwise I'll start calling you Nicole Cena."

"Touché."

They end the call shortly afterwards and when Ary falls asleep that night in bed next to Colby, his arm wrapped tight around her waist, she knows that she's making the right decision. She wants to spend the rest of her life with this man.

When she wakes up on Thursday morning, there's a note on the pillow where Colby slept. He wants to meet her at the hospital, writes that he shouldn't see her until they're standing before the officiant, and that Suzanne's going to drop around to help her get ready.

And when Ary sees her sister, their hug lasts for what feels like hours.

She's not really close to her sister, as such, but they're blood. Family. Something that Ary can't and won't ignore.

"Have you talked to Marcus?"

Suzanne nods, holding Ary at arms length and giving her a good once over. It's not like they haven't seen each other for a long time — it's just two months. If that.

"You look so much like mum, Ary," Suzanne says softly. She smiles then, looking around the small apartment. "Alright, no time for dily-dallying, we've got a wedding to get you ready for."

Their mother was Puerto Rican, their father Italian. The mix had Ary's skin naturally tanned, freckles splattered across her nose, eyes darker than Colby's. Suzanne looked more like their father, her pale olive skin a result of his heritage, and her eyes were almost amber brown, _much_ lighter than Ary's. The youngest sibling, her brother Marcus, was the better mixture of both her parents. He had his fathers light brown eyes, his mothers caramel skin, a mop of curls on his head. They definitely looked like a family, but at the same time, they didn't act it.

Ary barely stayed in contact with Marcus; he was busy with his life and she was busy with hers. Occasionally they'd send a couple of messages back and forth and they hadn't seen each other for a couple of years because of his move to Australia — so when the company went down south for a three day tour, she'd spend the night at his in Melbourne.

The wedding itself is very simple; the officiant takes both the rings for Ary and Colby and hands them to her father, and Colby waits patiently in the private hospital room and catches up with Tony.

As Ary walked into the room with a cute little headband veil on, her father sits up straighter and smiles so widely she feels like his face might split in two. Colby has a gentle grin and his eyes are sparkling.

The rings that Colby has arranged are gorgeous. Encased in the silver wedding band are little diamond squares and the engagement ring? It's vintage, Ary knows that for sure. There's a beautiful diamond rock that sits on top of the gold band, a silver floral design curling around it. Simple, elegant, beautiful. Colby tells her that he got it because it's so _her_.

She holds Tony's hand in hers as she says the traditional wedding vows, stares across at her to-be husband while he reciprocates.

When the officiant tells Colby to remove the headband, he struggles, and the room erupts into a gentle laughter.

And then they kiss. Like sealing the deal, Colby presses his lips gently against hers and wraps a calloused hand around her neck, and Ary realised that she's not kissing her boyfriend anymore, she's kissing her husband.

—

They spend almost all of Friday in Ary's bed.

Her apartment is small yet spacious enough for the two of them. It's an open loft, her queen bed on the top and her kitchen on the ground floor on the opposite side.

Colby eventually deserts her for a quick crossfit bout and she does her own training in the apartment, engaging her muscles in a long Pilates session before cooking up a beautiful beef casserole.

"If this is the life I'm signing up to as a husband, I'm down," Colby announces as he walks through the front door.

Ary turns and sends him a cute little grin and his eyes trail down her body that's barely covered in one of his shirts.

"I'm _so_ down."

—

 **RAW Live, May 25th**

Memorial Day.

RAW started with a video vignette, her face, Colby's face, Jon's face, Nikki's face taking part as well as a handful of other superstars as they spoke that iconic speech.

Together, the locker room stood at the back, Colby's hand in hers and her head resting on his chest. And then… then it was showtime.

—

When Dean Ambrose walks out, Ary Hale is right next to him, her title slung across her shoulder, face split in half with a grin. She sends a little wave to the members of the Authority in the ring.

In her hands, she holds a kendo stick across her back and a microphone.

"Now you may find this hard to believe, but I think there's something _wrong_ with me." He pauses, sways to the rhythm of the crowd chanting his name, and Ary openly laughs in glee. "There might be something wrong with me, I can't sleep well lately and instead of counting sheep, I count punching Seth Rollins in the face. I count the teeth flying out of his mouth one by one; by the time I get to about two hundred punches, I sleep like a _baby_."

Dean continues and Ary's face fills the tron as she stands next to the lunatic fringe. "I get this feeling, I guess you can call it… happiness. Beating up Seth Rollins makes me _happy_. So normally, like Ary Hale here," he motions to her with a smug grin, "I'd get my jollies kicking the crap out of Seth Rollins for free. But last week, with a gentle nudge in the right direction thanks to your latest target," again he motioned at the woman next to him, "I realised I wanted it to be for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship. And the _crazy_ thing is Seth, it's _actually_ gonna happen. All it took was a steel chair, a few cinder blocks, and a little bit of imagination. I hope the WWE Universe enjoyed that as much as I did, I know Ary certainly did, I know the Authority appreciated it.

"I _know_ the Authority appreciated it because there's a good chance this Sunday their boy, their _golden boy_ , their golden lil' baby boy, the Architect gets _replaced_ by someone _you_ call a lunatic but everyone else is just gonna call the new face of WWE. Now when _that_ happens, I wanna make some changes around here! For starters, J&J Security, you're going barefoot like a couple of… _respectable_ hobbits. And Kane… you can stop wearing that cheap suit; you can just wear a collar like the obedient little dog that you are. And Seth, well… you can drunk dial Selena Gomez, because Sethy boy, you'll always be our little Justin Bieber."

Seth's had enough. "You _shut your mouth_ , Ambrose!" He yells, stepping forward and pointing threateningly. Except the Justin Bieber chants are ear shattering. "You know what? You people, when are you gonna get it, you called me a _sell out_ for so long and you act like I wasn't _proud of it,_ alright? And now you call me Justin Bieber like it's an _insult_? Why do you call me that, I mean, just— just—"

"I don't think these lovely people actually want to hear what you have to say, Seth, so you can save your breath."

Seth's furious eyes latch onto Ary Hale's smug figure.

"See, Seth, you may be standing up there with that Championship across your shoulder like it's supposed to mean something," Ary laughs, shakes her head. "But, honestly? It's like I _own_ this company, because right now, _my_ Diva's Championship means a _hell_ of a lot more than what you've made _that_ title stand for."

The audiences both cheers and lets out a loud round of 'ooooh', trying to drive it home, and in the centre of the ring, Ary can actually see Seth's chest heaving.

"This doesn't concern you, Ary Hale, so _you_ can shut your mouth too!" Seth yells. Ary shrugs and lets out a triumphant laugh. "As for you, Ambrose, you're just a little _cockroach_. And the thing about cockroaches, Dean, they're _really_ good at surviving, hell, I've heard that they can survive a nuclear holocaust. But they never _thrive._ Cockroaches, they never _win,_ Dean. You are destined to be a loser your _entire life,_ all you want is to be the man standing in this ring, all you want is _to be me,_ Dean Ambrose, and you know what? It's a good thing, maybe it's a blessing in disguise you're trying to weasel your way into a match with me at Elimination Chamber because I am _sick_ of chasing you away from WWE and if you've got the _guts_ to come down here and put your name on that line and sign the contract and make it official, I will _gladly_ scrape your teeth off the bottom of my boot for the very last time at Elimination chamber. So come on down, I _dare_ ya!"

Ary purses her lips at the harsh words, looks across at her business partner. He cracks his neck, slowly lifts the microphone to his mouth. " _Well_ , I'd rather be a cockroach than the wrong end of the Authority's human centipede."

The arena is deafening.

"So all I've gotta do is come down, get in that ring, step right into that _lions den_ , and sign that contract?" Dean pauses, taps his finger on the mic. "Well, it might be _crazy_ and it might be _stupid_ but it might be worth a shot. And there's only one way to find out."

He drops the microphone, slips his leather jacket off, and Ary follows suit, practicing her swing as she walks beside him. They head for the side of the barricades closest to the commentary table and when Roman Reigns' music sounds across the stadium, Ary can't help throwing her head back and laughing in glee.

But Stephanie McMahon has other plans. "You know, everywhere I turn, I see The Shield boys are inseparable, it's so cute and so sweet, everybody loves it, it's so nice. What are you doing, Ary, messing around with both of them behind closed doors?"

Ary's tempted to call out _suck my dick_ but she knows it won't go down too well, so instead keeps her mouth shut and grins at the woman like it doesn't irk her at all.

"And Dean, you have til the end of the night to _sign_ that contract to make your championship match official for Elimination Chamber. But _until_ then, I'm gonna make a main event. How about the two of _you_ team up to face the team of Kane and the Architect, the WWE World Heavyweight Champion Seth Rollins. But the best part of it, ladies and gentlemen, you don't have to wait until the end of the night; this match happens _right now_."

Ary stays ringside because J&J Security do. She prowls the side of the ring her team is on and stares menacingly at the security detail, arms wrapped around the kendo stick at the back of her neck.

She's taller than them this time; because once again, while she's not wrestling tonight, they have her in some distressed skinny jeans and sky high ankle boots.

They stay in line for most of the match, but when they step out of line, Ary doesn't hesitate. The crowd goes _wild_ as they watch her swing the stick down on both of the security men, but then they go wild in a different kind of way, she knows that there's a large, red monster behind her.

Kane smiles, well… _grimaces_ at her, wraps his hand around her neck, chokeslam about to be hard and heavy, until over her side, Reigns flies in with a deafening Superman Punch.

Letting out a relieved sigh, her dark eyes find Reigns' pale ones and she holds her fist out so he can bump his against it.

Beside them in the ring, Ambrose hits a back slide on Seth and picks up the win _one, two, three_ , and the Authority get the hell out of dodge while they still can, faces absolutely _fuming_. And on the other hand, Dean, Roman and her? They celebrate in the centre of the ring, Ary holding her championship high in the air and pointing right at the man who could _never_ be as dominant as her.

—

Ary isn't there to back up Dean when he gets attacked by Seth and J&J, but she hears about it and is then questioned by the commentary team when she joins them for the Divas match between Paige and Naomi.

After Paige's dominating win, Ary finds herself backstage in a room with the two leaders of the Authority.

"You _seriously_ think that putting him in jail is going to stop him from signing that contract?!" She yells as she comes into the frame.

"Miss Hale…" Stephanie drawls, looking unimpressed beyond words.

" _Even_ if he gets bailed out by you, Ary, there's no way he'll make it back here in time for the end of the show, which means he won't get that contract signed." Hunter is calm, cool, collected, staring triumphantly at the Diva's Champion.

"You might as well swallow those words you're speaking, Hunter, because you don't know Dean _quite_ that well if you think being halfway across the city is going to slow him down. Do you know how many _connections_ he has?"

Stephanie snorts. "Ary, there's no way he's making it back. Now, if you'll please…" she motions to the door, but when Ary doesn't move, her lips pull back. "If you don't leave this room right now, Ary Hale, I will make your life a living hell, I will strip you of _everything_ you've ever worked for—"

"Stephanie…" Hunter warns, placing a gentle hand on her arm. "I think Ary knows exactly what to expect from us if she doesn't take our advice."

"Oh, don't worry, _Triple H_ ," the champion taunts, toxic smile curling across her lips. "You won't strip me of this title because I'm the _only_ _relevant champion_ this company currently has. I mean, you may as well throw Rollins to the bottom of the barrel, because right now, the _vacant_ Intercontinental Championship has more prestige than that thing he has around his waist."

"You're the only female champion because there's only one belt in your division, Hale—"

"And why is that, Hunter? Are we not _hard_ enough to carry two? Are you afraid that if you bring another one in, I'll hold _both_?"

The two people standing across from her are _furious_.

"You know what, Hale?" Stephanie seethes, "Forget your one-on-one match with Paige at Elimination Chamber. You'll defend your title against Paige, and Naomi, and Nikkie Bella, and Brie Bella, and the rest of _your_ division in a Divas Battle Royal. That's, what… eleven women you have to fight off? Each of them you've insulted more times than I can care to count!"

Ary shrugs. "Nothing I haven't won at before, Stephanie, but I'll have fun beating _everyone_ for a second time — or a third time, or a fourth time if I pin Nikki Bella. Thanks for the opportunity to showcase my skills, though!"

Her nostrils flare. "I'd _leave_ if I were you before I add _another_ stipulation."

"What?" Ary laughs, shakes her head. "Afraid that I won't be able to handle tables? Or chairs? Or ladders? Or are you _afraid_ that no one will be able to dethrone me if that's introduced?" Ary wriggled her eyebrows and rubbed the title around her waist lovingly, grin shining along with her eyes. "Ambrose will be back and he _will_ sign that contract, and on Sunday at the Elimination Chamber pay-per-view, he _will_ _win_ that WWE World Heavyweight Championship fair and square, and I'll _successfully_ battle eleven other women to retain _my_ championship because _you_ have _no one_ that's even _close_ to being as good as me."

* * *

 **woooooO! got this done in the space of a night, and because of that, I think maaaaybe this might go for a little longer than I expected... to SummerSlam, at least, because that's how far I've mapped out the storyline... oh well, we'll see how we go!**

 **To my reviewers (some of who review both on this one AND my other Dean/OC one because they're awesome), Raquel the writer** (thankyou for thinking so!) **, Bajor10** (if that comes up in the future, i'll be more than willing to showcase it :)!) **, and T** (man I love you! i think if i were to finish this one soon, i'll focus more on their backstory and how they met, I mean I have their whole past/history mapped out, so I guess it's important, right? Colby is the best honestly, love him to bits (especially my version of him :*), hope you enjoyed this one just as much!) **, thankyou!**

 **drop a comment and I'll more than willingly reply and strike up a conversation! thank you to my silent readers who favourite and follow the story, and im happy about the shorter wait for an update this time! love you all lots xx**


	11. loving

**SmackDown Taping, 26th May**

True to her word, Ambrose did return to sign the contract.

Which perfectly set up the following taping of SmackDown before heading into the Elimination Chamber. While Ary and Stephanie were going over developments in Ary's newly proposed storyline, Colby was getting a fill of his own.

"What do you think about this?" Stephanie asks, handing her a piece of paper. "One of the younger ones came up with it, thought that it would be a good twist."

Ary looks the proposal over, smirk falling across her face and eyebrow raising. "You're okay to go with this?" She asks Stephanie as she looks back at the head of Creative.

Stephanie shoots her a dazzling grin. "I think it'll be great! You've had the little bit with Ambrose and what happens at the Chamber will mean that it's out the door. So, she thought that setting you up like that would go over well with the crowd."

"Huh," Ary purses her lips and nods in approval. "I think it'll work. Is Brock okay with it though?"

"He said as long as you are, he is. Plus, it's only one move."

"True."

Ary hums again flips to the next page. Stephanie watches her with anticipation as she reads the proposed storyline until SummerSlam. "The RAW after Battleground—"

"That's a surprise," she says quickly, grin threatening to split her face in half. "You'll absolutely love it."

"And you're undecided whether it's going to progress as a face storyline?"

At this, Stephanie's smile falters a bit. "We never really know what the WWE Universe is going to react with. Seth's stabbed his brothers in the back multiple times and they might never forgive him for that, and I mean, the last time you were a heel was when you debuted in 2012 and won your first championship, so…"

"I can handle the heat," Ary laughs, handing the papers back to the Creative boss. "The heat's the easy part, y'know, because being hated is very easy. It's keeping the heat that's hard. I mean, they'll get sick of something that's done over and over again, so I have to keep it fresh and constant and _strong_ if they react badly."

"A strong booking as a heel…" Stephanie huffs out a chuckle and takes a sip from the water bottle in front of her. "We'll see."

—

Ary isn't out in the eyes of the WWE Universe until midway through the night. The reception is mixed — a lot of the crowd don't know how to react to Ary becoming cocky, a lot of the crowd still cheer her because of the roll she's playing against Rollins.

But she's not out here tonight to cut a promo or to sit at the commentary table and talk smack. No, she's out here tonight — wrestling shorts, knee high black boots, her fingerless gloves and black tape rolling up her arm.

Since she can't give Paige the one on one match on Sunday, she's offering the next best thing.

Ary stands in the centre of the ring, sways left to right on her feet. The ref's already got her title. Paige is standing in the corner.

She looks at the pale Diva, eyes assessing, and then holds her arms out in a challenge. Paige steps forward until they're inches apart and then, shockingly, Ary reaches a hand out in a sign of respect. The two females share a quick smile. A quick handshake. And then the bell goes.

They lock up, quick to get into the motions of telling their story. Ary shoves Paige back against the ropes to break the hold and then launches at her when she rebounds back. Paige gets right back up, eats another diving clothesline.

The pale Diva retreats into a corner and Ary follows, landing elbow after elbow across her face, yet somehow Paige manages to twist them around and Ary finds her back against the turnbuckle.

There's a fist in her stomach, then another, then another, and the champion keels over as Paige is forced to back away, gasping for the air that was driven from her gut. She doesn't even have time to recover before Paige is back on her, holding the ropes for support as she drives her boot down into Ary's side, over and over until again she's forced to back away.

The Brit yells loudly, screaming ' _this is my house!'_ and the audience scream right back at her. Ary looks up just in time to see a flicker of a smile across her lips.

Paige ducks forward, twists a hand into Ary's black hair and under her arm and tosses her between the top and middle rope, careful to make sure she doesn't fall to the ground. Her head and torso are yanked back into the ring and Paige starts to drive her knee into Ary's chest as many times as she can, the champion's hair flying around her head.

When she backs off, Ary hangs limp against the ropes with a hand to her chest, trying desperately to get air into her lungs.

With a swift movement of limbs and strength, Paige throws Ary into the centre of the ring and goes for a cover. Ary kicks out a one— she may be winded but she's not hurt.

Paige lets out another almighty scream and clasps her hand around the champion's wrist, drags her to her feet only to clothesline her back down. But she doesn't let go. She pulls Ary back up, hits another winding clothesline. Still doesn't let go and hits Ary with a _third_ winding clothesline.

Ary manages to find her footing and pushes up onto her legs, but her balance is immediately gone and she's flat on her back when Paige slams her foot against her chest, executing the single leg dropkick perfectly.

Rolling over onto her stomach, Ary tries to stand once more. She hears the crack of Paige's foot against her chin before she feels the pain and then she's staring up at the spinning lights, extremely disoriented. By the time she realises she's being covered, she barely makes the two and a half.

The ref holds his fingers up in a two above her and the crowd shout the number back at him.

Her legs are being tugged and then she's back in the centre of the ring, Paige staring down at her with a vicious looking smirk. She's preparing for the PTO. Ary flails her legs and arms, finding a new life in her sore torso, manages to kick Paige from her.

When Paige rebounds against the ropes and aims to hit back with another super-kick, Ary rolls out of the way just in time. She launches to her feet and when Paige turns around, hits a chop so loud that the immediate crowd around them gasp in shock.

Paige stumbles back and Ary follows up with another, her face contorting as she throws all of her strength behind it.

The pale Diva makes quick to roll out of the ring and Ary follows her, grabs an arm. She walks across to the turnbuckle and slips into the ring on one side, rolls out the other, and then slams Paige's arm so hard against the post that the Diva is howling in pain.

Ary manages to pull her back inside but doesn't let go of the injured arm. Instead, she holds it out straight and jumps, brings her knees up to her chest and falls back down to the mat, executing a painful double knee arm-breaker on Paige.

In the next couple of seconds, Ary has twisted Paige's hurt arm through hers and locked her legs around the Brit's waist, the kimura lock causing Paige to cry out again in pain.

The ref is in her face, asking if she wants to tap, but Paige is adamant and shakes her head harshly, fights through the pain as she tries to push both of them closer to the ropes. Her Doc Martin's skid along the mat feebly but somehow she makes ground, and soon enough her hand is wrapped around the bottom rope.

Ary waist for the ref to reach the third count before she disentangles herself and rolls away. Her hand is at her chest, caressing the spot where Paige had stomped on her collarbone a bit too harshly, and she watches Paige cautiously.

The Diva is slow to get up, but once she turns around and locks her eyes onto the dark brown of Ary's, she runs forward.

What she's _not_ expecting is a spinebuster.

The breath rushes from Paige's lungs as she hits the mat but Ary doesn't go for a cover. She instead crouches in the centre of the ring and throws her arms out and the crowd cheer for the champion. She waits for Paige to get up and wraps her hands around Paige's arms, plants a foot on her hip for some air and then pulls the Diva down into a reverse codebreaker.

When Paige hits the mat, her back arches in pain. Again, Ary doesn't go for the cover.

She pulls the woman up, wraps her arm around Paige's neck, hand resting at the base of her skull, and runs at the ropes. The finisher is enough to keep Paige down for the three count.

—

"So when were you going to tell me?"

Ary starts at the voice, glances over her shoulder at Randy Orton.

"Huh?"

Randy stares at her with narrowed eyes, but he's got an eyebrow raised and a gentle smirk on his lips. "Colby didn't say a word, but he _did_ take his wrestling gloves off."

"And…?"

"And there was a _wedding_ band on his finger."

 _Oh_. Right. Ary can't fight the smirk crawling across her face and gingerly raises a shoulder in a half-assed shrug. "There's a wedding band on his finger, you're right."

He rolls his eyes and pulls her up into a strong embrace, then pushes her back and gently whacks her arm. "The fuck were you going to tell me?!"

"Ow!" Ary mockingly rubs the limb and rolls her eyes, spinning back around to fling the duffle over her shoulder. "Never, you asshole, not when you keep abusing me."

"Oh, I'm abusing you?" Randy let out a loud laugh. "I'm sorry, _who_ slapped who?"

At the guilty look on Ary's face, Randy threw an arm around her shoulder and started to walk them towards the room where catering was set up.

"I'm a bit insulted I didn't get invited, to be honest."

"Didn't miss out on much," Ary says lowly. "Plus, no one wants a snake at their wedding."

"Everyone wants a snake at their wedding."

"No one even likes you."

Randy gasps, pulls a face as he covers his open mouth with a shaking hand. "How… how could you say such a thing?"

Ary cackles and pokes his ribs. "The truth hurts, vipe-y."

"Sticks and stones may break my bones," Randy starts, and Ary lets out a squeal of glee before joining in, yelling a heartfelt albeit slightly _different_ ending. "But your words?! _Fuck_ your words because I'm the Goddamn **president** of shit talking and **_they'll never hurt me!_** "

The two laugh loudly as they round the corner of catering and Ary's heart jumps into her mouth with the sight she's greeted with.

" **SURPRISE!** "

"Holy fuckin' shit!" She exclaims and the room breaks into a round of laughter.

Her friends, her work colleagues, people she loves and people she barely knows stand before her with wide grins and happy faces and when Ary locks her eyes on Colby, who's standing right in the middle of the freakin' pack, he looks like the smuggest bastard on the world.

"What the hell?!" Ary yells, smile pulling the corner of her lips up.

Nikki steps out of the crowd with a guilty and proud look on her face, white teeth sparkling brightly. "Consider this the engagement party that you never got, Ary! After everything that's happened, it's only fair that we give you something to smile about again."

Ary laughs and drags a hand down her face. "I love _all_ of you, but you all fuckin' suck."

Again her friends laugh at her, but from where she's standing, she sends a wink to Colby.

This man and his romantic gestures were going to be the death of her.

—

Later that night, Ary is snuggling up against Colby's warm chest, her fingers moving through the soft black hair on his chest.

"Did you enjoy tonight?"

"You suck."

Colby's laugh rumbles through his body. "Just so you know, it _was_ Nikki's idea."

"I don't believe that one bit," she laughs, pressing her lips against his side. "You're too much of a romantic for that to have nothing to do with you."

Colby hums, her husband's chest vibrating beneath her, and then she rolls on top of him, locks her fingers around his wrists and pins them by his head. "The next thing you're going to do is ask me to move in with you."

"You already have a key—"

"Doesn't count."

"—and half of my wardrobe—"

"Nope."

"—and we've already fought about the amount of pillows on the bed."

At this, Ary smirks. "Colby Lopez."

He smiles gently back up at her, interlocks their hands together. "Ary Lopez."

Her lips split in a wide smile and she ducks, presses her lips against his in a short kiss. "I like the sound of that."

"I'm still for naming our kids Seth and Rollins—"

"Shut up," she laughs as she backs away. Ary crouches down on his chest and lets his hands go, folds them under her chin. Her dark eyes are sparkling. "Ask me to move in with you."

Colby snorts. "No way. You're a hippie, a nerd, an _actual_ perfectionist, kinda OCD influenced—"

"Also a great cook, I do all the cleaning without expecting anything back," Ary pauses, tilts her head. "Plus, sex whenever."

At this, Colby's face morphs from unconvinced to a smirk. "Oh, is that right?"

"Yep."

"Anywhere?"

"We can even do it on the kitchen counter."

"Can we invite Jon over after?"

Ary rolls her eyes. "Yes."

"Then Ary Lopez, I'm asking you to move in with me."

"Finally," she sighs as she catches his lips in another kiss. "Can't believe we got married before you asked me to move in."

She can feel Colby chuckle under her and when her eyes open, his grinning like the cheshire cat. "We're married."

"Yes we are."

His eyes slide shut in contentment. "I can call you my wife."

"Oh, my God," Ary laughs. "I can't believe how much of a pansy you are."

"Me?" Colby asks loudly, eyes wide in shock. "A pansy? Who the fuck do you think you are, huh, calling me that?"

Ary rolls her eyes again but goes along with his plan. "Your wife."

"Damn straight," he sighs happily, pulling her down for another kiss. "My wife. How dare my wife call me a pansy? Gotta teach her a lesson now, don't I?"

"Oh?" Ary laughs and sits back up on his chest, stares down at him with darkened eyes. "How you gonna take me down, huh?"

Colby wraps an arm around her waist and flips them, but Ary catches his free arm and locks her legs around her waist, slipping into her submission hold effortlessly. She giggles as he groans a little in pain but as soon as the sound leaves her mouth, his hips grind down into her and she gasps so loudly he chuckles.

"That's not fair!" Ary yells at him. "This is _wrestling_! Sexual moves are grounds for disqualification, Colby Lopez."

"Yeah, wrestling my ass," he murmurs through a smile. "I'd beat you any day."

He quickly over-powers the hold, locks her hands above her head, but Ary's just as quickly pushed a knee between their bodies so that he can't grind against her anymore.

She grins in success.

"Oh, you think you're so smart, don't you?" Colby teases, locking both of her wrists in one of his hands. He moves the other to her bent knee, trails a calloused hand around the back of her smooth thigh and pushes her leg to the side. "But I'm stronger."

Her legs are spread wide under him and he teases with a little push of his hips against hers, watches as her mouth drops open, eyes almost closed.

"And a fuckin' tease," she manages to push out.

Ary lets out a quiet squeal as he flips her body under his, hips now pressing into the curve of her ass. His rough hands run under her top, lift the material away from her skin, lips pressing into her back. He gently kisses his way up her spine and lets Ary remove her top, and then he's kissing the back of her neck. She lets out a loud moan, sucks in a breath as he bites at her skin and sucks, and turns under his body again.

She presses her lips up into his, lets it go until he presses his tongue against her lip and then sighs into her mouth when she opens it. His tongue slides along hers and her legs secure around his waist and when he grinds until her again, he drinks her desperate plea.

Reaching down with a free hand, Ary slips the briefs from his hips and he pulls back to take hers off, but he pauses when he's at her feet, stares at the woman under him.

"I take you to be my wife," Colby takes a smooth leg into his hand, kisses her ankle and moves slowly up her leg, "my partner in life," he kisses along her calf now, "my one true love."

He moves further up, presses his lips against the crease of her knee. "I will cherish your feet, your calves, your knees, your thighs," he runs his mouth along her thigh, the tickling of his stubble sending a shiver through Ary's body.

"Today, tomorrow, forever." Colby looks up at her with kind brown eyes, the same ones that glint melted chocolate in the right kind of light. "My best friend and true love always. My wife."

"Your wife," Ary murmurs back to him, "needs a dick."

Colby smiles at her and laughs, almost collapsing on top of her. "I'm trying to be—"

"I know."

He moves again, this time pushes inside of Ary gently as she lets out a low moan. His hand pressed into the pillow next to her head, thumb at her chin and pulling her jaw down until he was kissing her.

Pace picking up, their breaths matching in huffs, Colby's strong body above hers and stretching her walls wide, Ary's fit body under his and responding in a way that sent shivers down his spine— they would never get tired of it if they were given the opportunity to.

When they finish, Colby rolls back onto his side of the bed panting, looks up at the roof blissfuly. Ary curls into his side, hand back on his chest and playing with the slightly dampened body hair on his chest.

It's silent apart from their breaths becoming slower and she can see that Colby's almost asleep, but her voice still rings out loud and clear.

"To be honest, my apartment would be the better one to move into."

* * *

 **baddabingbaddaboom, another one done. *wipes dust off shoulder* enjoy the fluffy goodness and some vanilla sex and some banter, and also a match with paige! wo! but WAIT... what's gonna happen at Elimination Chamber? just what has Stephanie planned?!**

 **to my reviewers; Raquel the writer,** and married they are! yay!; **Bajor10,** i love them together too! their relationship is natural to write :)!; **and T** , im literally barfing rainbows rn after writing that last scene. i might throw in a couple of flashbacks, but i'm not really planning on writing their entire backstory. and unfortunately i won't be doing a roman central fic, but he appears a lot in another one that im writing if you're interested? check out Don't Let Me Drown, the next chapter is from his POV :)

 **also, SHAMELESS SHOUTOUT TO MY OTHER FICS! Don't Let Me Drown is a new one that is mega!AU and has multiple pairings as well as an OC, Three's a Crowd, Four's a Party is a Shield fic. check them out! also hit me up on twitter (link on profile) and drop a comment for lots of love!  
** **peace xox**


	12. losing

**Elimination Chamber, May 31st**

Unsurprisingly, Ary _really_ enjoys the Halestorm concert that Colby takes her to. Fast forward a couple of days and Ary stands with her back to the wall, mentally preparing for the Battle Royal she's about to enter.

The Bella Twins are out first, then Natalya, then Alicia Fox. All of them, all of the Divas stood out in the ring. Cameron, Brie, Emma, Naomi, Natalya, Nikki, Rosa, Tamina, Summer Rae, Nikki, Paige. _All_ of them. Her championship is secure around her waist but Ary knows it's not going to be there for long.

When her music finally sounds in the arena, Ary waits for the guitar riff to push out from the curtains. Her face isn't a picture of serenity. It's a picture of finality. The chance of her retaining in this kind of match is close to none. So she stands at the top of the ramp and stares down at her competition, unhooks the championship from her waist and hoists it high into the air in a final statement.

And, given the chaos in the ring, it starts simple enough. She's pushed into the corner by the Canadian Hart, stomach burning in pain as she's punched over and over.

Ary doesn't keep track of the other Divas. She darts around the ring, helps eliminate as many people as she can, but both Paige and Nikki are seeming to be difficult to get rid of.

And soon enough, it's just between the three of them.

Yet, it's not.

Seth Rollins has other plans.

His music hits the speakers, lights flashing, and he soon stands at the top of the ramp with a little smile on his face. All the movements in the ring have come to a halt, the three women staring up at the WWE World Heavyweight Champion.

Seth saunters down the ramp yet takes his time, something so infuriating that Ary has come to the top of the ropes to yell at him.

"What the hell?!" She shouts. "What do you think you're doing?!"

The champion ignores her, walks around the squared circle, once, twice, and now the crowd are booing and Nikki and Paige are glancing at each other like they're formulating a plan. With the referee yelling at him to leave, Seth does the exact opposite. He climbs the steel steps, walks along the apron until he's standing just next to her.

Ary's confused and angry face flashes across the tron, but what she doesn't see is what's about to happen.

Rollins rocks forwards on the balls of his feet, smirk heavy on his face, hand wrapping around Ary's shoulder and pulling her mouth against his. A look of shock crosses her face and her eyes widen and luckily he doesn't do anything else, but he's still _kissing_ her like it's the most natural thing in the world.

The crowd _loses_ it, booing as loud as they possibly can, and Nikki and Paige share another long look as the WWE Champion steals a kiss from their champion.

When Ary finally manages to push away from him, hold her lips in shock, Seth Rollins simply smirks at her and drops from the apron. He walks back the way he came. Swaggers, really. And Ary is _fuming_ , her dark eyes wide with anger.

She doesn't have the time to save herself when hands shove her forwards.

The fall, the impact.

The lights shining down at her.

The screams.

The cameras.

All of it.

"Ary Hale has been _eliminated_ from the Divas Battle Royale for the WWE Divas Championship."

 _Gone_.

All of it, just gone.

Her hands flew onto her face, covering her eyes, and for a long second tears burn at the back of them. Fuck. _Fuck_.

A couple of the fans yell out at her not to cry. So instead, Ary raises back onto her arms, watches the match from where she landed. And Nikki and Paige go at it. Until Nikki is somehow flung over the top rope, until Paige is announced the _new_ WWE Diva's Champion. She grasps the title as close to her chest as she can and her face contorts into a mixture of happiness and crying.

Ary just sits there.

When she finds the courage to stand, Ary slowly nods her head.

A mic is thrust into her hands and she makes her way back into the ring, eyes finally latching onto Paige's heavily made up one.

"As soon as this _shit_ with Seth Rollins is over," Ary almost growls, "that's coming back home. In the mean time, Paige? Look after it."

—  
 **RAW Live, 1st June**

Ary Hale is no longer the longest reigning WWE Champion. She's back at square one.

And Seth Rollins, somehow, even though he should have lost it? He retained. He _retained_.

As she watches him on screen and he looks like a grumpy kid, like one that's had his toys taken away from him. His arms are crossed, face pulled in a scowl. She feels worse.

When Triple H calls for Dean Ambrose, it's not his music that sounds. It's Ary's.

She doesn't have a microphone in her hand. She's not wearing her ring gear. She doesn't have her title. But what she does have is a murderous glint in her eyes. Almost chaotic. She stops at the top of the ramp, hands clenched into fists, looks at the smug Stephanie McMahon and her husband.

Seth looks just as smug because suddenly he's forgotten why he's so grumpy.

The man steps forward, holds out his hands and yells something incomprehensible. So Ary walks forwards slowly and very deliberately, never once taking her eyes off of the man that had cost her so much.

When she climbs the steps and walks so she's next to him, images of the previous night flash through her mind. What a precarious position; their roles are switched. And Ary wants to do something that will make her feel so much better, so much happier, wants to do something that will have the universe talking for _weeks_.

"Are ya hear to declare your undying love?" Seth cackles at her.

The only response she has for him is one that puts him on his back. Her fist slams across his face so quick and so swift that J&J and everyone else standing in the ring are too slow to react.

Ary's already jumped off the apron when Stephanie takes a threatening step forward, but when Seth looks up at her, she smirks. She's done what she's come for.

The champions face flashes across the tron and the audience screams in glee when they see it; blood is dripping from his nose.

—

"Oh my God, Colby I swear I didn't mean to hit you that hard," Ary says, covering her mouth in an attempt to smother a laugh.

Her husband sends a loose glare in her direction, fiddling with the tissue that's stuffed up his nose. "I'm never letting you hit me again."

She laughs again and curls into his side, plays with the pattern on his shirt, curls her toes under a cushion. "You know, I'm enjoying this storyline. I get to kiss you, hit you, have something to fight for, get to mess with you…"

"I swear you're actually turning into our local sadist, Hale."

"You love it."

"Without question."

In the corner of the room, Jon snorts. "You two are fuckin' disgusting."

"You know it!" Ary shouts back at him, smiling into Colby's chest.

—

Ary's chin tilts up, jaw locking. She's in frame in the same clothes she wore to the ring, her hair up in a messy pony tail, but next to her is Stephanie McMahon and Triple H.

"Ary, I will _not_ tolerate such blatant disrespect to the WWE World Heavyweight Champion," the woman says. "And in accordance to your actions tonight, I have no option but to punish you."

The ex-champion doesn't say a word.

"I know that you were set to have your rematch tonight against Paige for an opportunity to win the title back, but…" Stephanie shrugs, sends a disappointing look to her husband. "After what just happened out there, we have no option but to take that away from you."

And it's all Ary can do to not smirk, because _fuck_ it would be amazing right now to just smack Stephanie the way she'd smacked Seth Rollins.

But Stephanie continues speaking. "And honestly, I think it's time you prove how good you really are. So starting on Thursday night, you'll be put in matches that will test your courage and your in-ring ability. If you can make it through those tests… just _maybe,_ we'll consider giving you a shot at Paige's WWE Divas Championship."

Then, Triple H clears his throat. "Ary, I think it's safe to say that you've learnt your lesson. We understand that Seth put you under emotional duress last night, but you have to be the bigger person here—"

"The bigger person?" Ary snaps, finally breaking free of her façade. "The _bigger person_? Oh, Hunter, you are _so_ lucky that I'm not pressing sexual harassment charges against Seth Rollins, against _you_. I could sue you for _millions_ because of your blatant dismissal of what Seth Rollins has done to me! He's injured me, put me _intentionally_ in harms way, God, if I wanted to, I could sue you for putting me under emotional distress!"

She throws her arms out, raises her voice a little more. "I told you from day _one_ that if push came to shove, I'd hit back _just_ as hard! And just to spite you, Stephanie, I will wrestle _every_ Diva in that locker room to prove to you that even though I don't have my championship title, I'm _still the best!_ Do _not_ push me to my limit, Stephanie McMahon, because I don't give a _crap_ who your dad is or who your husband is or what you own — if you push me to far, I will tear this company apart."

* * *

 **woooooo the shortest update after the longest wait... im sorry? i knoowwww it's short but i felt like it was a great place to stop because it's like BAM BITCH.**

 **do you want more TV progression or more fluff between Ary and Seth? or a mix? or what? let me know and it might help me get these out quicker :)**

 **to my reviewers and readers, thanks for sticking around for so long! to Raquel the writer** (same omg), **T** (heel or face? we'll see ;) oh oh oh and her and Brock, that's going to be fun to write! and flashbacks! yes! must get to those! debating this for the past hour has actually given me a couple of good ideas!), **and Bajor10** (possibly, possibly not), **thank you for reviewing!**


	13. receiving

"Is the princess somewhere in here?"

Ary's eyes widen at the masculine voice and her head shoots up, grin spreading across her face as she watches the Beast Incarnate swing around the corner.

"Brock!" She shoots forward, wraps her arms around the massive man, hugs him as tight as she can. "I've missed you!"

"Missed you too, princess." Brock gently pushes her away from him and gives her a once over. "Now what's this I hear about you putting yourself up for this?"

Ary shrugs, smirk pulling across her lips. "To be honest, I think it's a _great_ idea."

"I could literally break you in half."

"Just pull back on your strength! It'll be fine," she laughs, glancing over her shoulder as Brock's meaty manager walks into the room.

Heyman is quick to look up, pulls the phone away from his mouth. "You two, with me. Stephanie wants a quick meeting."

Without question, the two superstars follow in Paul Heyman's steps, quickly listening to him bicker back and forth with whoever was on the other end of the call. "Is he always like this?" Ary asks softly.

"Have you met the man?"

"Well, yeah…" Brock gives her a pointed look and Ary laughs, shrugs again. "I mean, last time he was a lot chattier."

"Just because I'm in the middle of a conference call doesn't mean I can't hear you two," Heyman shot over the back of his shoulder.

"Ears like a bat," the man next to her whispers.

Soon enough, the entourage of on-screen talent walk into the room that Stephanie occupies. She has a couple of large folders in front of her, a cup of coffee on a coaster and three glasses of water on the opposite side. When she looks up, the head of Creative smiles at them. "Okay, so— Jesus Christ, look at the size difference between you two," Stephanie murmurs as her eyes flash in panic. She turns to Ary, lays a hand down on the woman's shoulder. "You don't have to do this. I mean, we can sort this out another way or have someone else do it or get one of the Divas—"

"No, no, I want to do this." Ary raises a shoulder, sends an anxious smile at the beast of a man standing next to her. "Plus, if everything goes to plan, it'll make for one hell of a feud."

"And Brock—"

"Stephanie, if this tiny thing here is okay with it, I'm okay with it."

Ary snorts, send Brock a disapproving look. "Tiny thing my ass."

"I mean, you could do a Kimura Lock—"

"No, Stephanie, it'll be fine."

Taking a deep breath, the woman nods with an anxious smile. "Okay. I trust you two know what you're doing. Are we going to tell Colby?"

Ary shakes her head at this. "Nope. I've told him that Brock's return is during my segment, that Paul's going to cut a promo, and that he needs to run out and try and placate the beast."

Over the next ten minutes, the four discuss the logistics of upcoming feud. Heyman leaves with a satisfied smile knowing that he gets a lot of speaking time, Brock drops a kiss onto the crown of her head and follows after his manager knowing that Ary is a-okay with everything that is coming up.

"Now that _that's_ out of the way," Stephanie murmurs as she shuffles some of the papers lying in front of her, humming in triumph as she finds the one she's after. "I was thinking about what you said to me last week, a strong booking at a heel. Well, we're not booking you as a heel until after SummerSlam now."

Ary's interest piques. "Sorry?"

"We want to try something… _different_."

"How different?"

"Possibly a co-main event."

She stares at Stephanie's cheeky smile with her jaw dropped wide. "I'm sorry?"

"If the people buy into this, the event is going to be a co-main event."

"There's already two main events set for SummerSlam!"

"And now there's going to be a third."

"And how do you propose on doing that?"

Stephanie's lips curve again in another smile, eyes mischievous. "Do you remember what we did for WrestleMania 30 last year? How if Bryan beat Paul, he could enter the World Title match?"

"Of course."

"We're thinking of going along those same lines, but also a little different…"

—

 **RAW, 8th June**

 **New Orleans, Louisiana**

"Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome my guest at this time, Ary Hale." Ary steps into frame, smiles at Renee softly. "Ary, last week we saw the tension between you and the Authority _escalate_. What's your reaction to what Stephanie's asked of you?"

Ary shrugs and lifts her eyes, ponders her response. "Renee, I'm sure this isn't the first time the WWE Universe has found out what a power hungry, conniving _witch_ Stephanie McMahon is. It's been customary for as _long_ as I remember that the loser in a championship match _always_ gets a re-match. Not this time, it seems. What I said last Monday? I meant every word of it. I will wrestle one-on-one against every Diva in that locker room if that means I get a chance at winning the title back. And tonight, I'll do just that when I go one-on-one against Summer Rae."

Renee nods. "And is there any further news on whether you're going to be pressing charges against Seth Rollins—"

"No," her lips curve up in a smirk, eyes glinting, head tilted. "There's more than one way to skin a cat, Renee. Even though I very well could, there's no way I'm pressing charges against him. I don't have the time or energy for it, and besides… payback is so much better when it's hand delivered."

And just like Ary said, she steps out from the gorilla to the sound of her music, silver wrestling shorts glinting in the light as it pours down on her. The black sleeveless hoodie draped across her shoulders isn't zipped up and from where the camera is, a little bit of the thin tattoo that spans across her hip is visible. Summer, who is already in the ring, looks like she's only just realised what she's signed up for — Ary seems ready to kill.

It starts as anyone would expect it too; with Ary in control. After a simple lock up, Ary pushes Summer back into the corner and slams a couple of elbows across her face. When she's shoved away by the referee, Ary paces back and forth, waits until Summer is feeling brave enough to walk out. The loud sound of skin slapping skin echoes around the arena as Ary drives a chop so hard against Summer's chest she's falling back to the ground, does it a second time just to prove a point.

Ary fists a hand in Summer's hair, throws her against the far ropes. When the woman rebounds off of them, Ary dives at her, the clothesline sends Summer Rae twisting through the air. Ary hits another quick diving clothesline.

Summer is slow to get back up.

Another hand fisted in the blonde hair, she tosses the woman against the ropes again, and when the blonde flies back at her, Ary delivers a winding spinebuster. The woman kicks out of the cover at a two.

But before Ary can get up, Summer has twisted her long legs around Ary's and pulled her into the Indian Deathlock — and holy _fuck_ , her surprised scream echoes around the arena like it's the most pain she's ever been in. Her hands are thrown across her face, head back against the mat, and then she rolls her body weight to try and twist onto her stomach. And that's probably _more_ painful, but Ary just grits her teeth and pulls herself towards the ropes.

Managing to crawl to her feet, Ary doesn't have much time to recover before the back of Summer's calf ricochets off of her face in a spinning kick.

Ary stumbles forwards and collapses, hand over her mouth as she's pulled into a cover. But if Summer wants to play the game of submissions… well, Ary will win.

She twists her body, locks her legs around Summer's wait, threads a hand between her body and her arm and holds the limb at an awkward angle as she power her way into a Kimura lock. And just like she had screamed, Summer's screams of pain sound like music to her ears.

Ary doesn't let go until Summer taps out.

—

It's not long before Ary finds herself back in the line of the cameras.

Seth Rollins is caressing his jaw, his segment with Joey and Jamie just finished.

"Whew," Ary drawls as she steps into the frame, glancing back over her shoulder at where J&J had disappeared. "Sure you can take on two gremlins at once? I mean, I know _I_ can but—"

"What do _you_ want?" Seth hisses back at her. He smirks then, raises a strand of her hair. "Finally figure out what a catch I am?"

She pulls a face and slaps his hand away, pretends to gag. "God, no." In her hand is her phone. Ary holds it out to him and motions to the screen. "Ambrose is _much_ better looking. I mean, have you seen how good the WWE World Heavyweight Championship looks around his waist?"

He all but growls at her.

"How are you coping? Knowing that he beat you fair and square?" Ary laughs. "God, at least I lost the title off of a distraction, not because I wasn't good enough. But hey, good luck in your handicap match tonight, I'm sure you'll do just great."

—

"You know, Paul, I've known you for how long and this is the _first_ time I'm getting to ride in this baby," Ary said, the sentence starting out snarky but ending in awe— it was hard _not_ to be in awe as she glanced around the luxurious cabin of their private jet.

"You never asked."

"You never offered!"

Paul shrugged, shared a smile with his wife. "I'd say I'm sorry but…"

"Yeah, yeah, shut up."

Alongside Stephanie and Paul, Ary was on her way towards Tampa, Florida— specifically Full Sail University. Ary hadn't met the three girls they were going to bring up yet, and Stephanie intended to rectify that situation; so Ary was flying down with them to deliver the news of their promotion up to the main roster. Saraya had said during the SmackDown taping that they were wonderful women, but that Ary would connect with one in particular, and she'd yet to figure that out.

So four hours later, when Ary had barely managed to get two hours shut eye, the car they are in pulls up outside of the university.

"We'll take you to meet the girls first," Stephanie says as she walks through the almost empty training centre. "They'll be waiting in the conference room."

Ary only knows them by their ring names; Sasha Banks sits at the head of the table with her NXT Women's Championship in front of her, and flanking her on either side are Becky Lynch and Charlotte Flair.

"Ladies," Paul says with a massive smile. "Thanks for letting us call the meeting. Let's get the introductions out of the way first."

Waving a hand, Ary shoots them a grin. "I'm Ary Hale. I know who each of you are but… do you prefer your ring names or your actual names?"

"Sasha," the magenta haired women says straight away, sending her friends a knowing look. "Sasha, please."

"Rebecca Quin, but Becky is fine with me," the Irish woman adds.

The legend's daughter is next. "Ashley is fine."

"Cool," Ary murmurs. She turns to Stephanie, wriggles her eyebrows. "So, you gonna tell them or am I?"

"Tell us what?" Becky asks suspiciously.

"We're promoting you guys to the main roster."

Excited and happy squeals rip through the room and Ary can't help but giggle in glee. She knows the exact feeling these women are experiencing.

 **RAW, June 15th**

 **Cleveland, Ohio**

 ** _at Battleground the night before…_**

Paige's title match had been reduced to rehatching an old feud between her and Nikki Bella.

Their match at Money in the Bank was set to be almost eleven minutes in length just after the half an hour mark of the show. So five minutes before they're set to go out, Ary finds herself readjusting the messy bun that's on top of her head. Studded, thickly heeled boots are on her feet, ripped black jeans on her legs, and a cropped sleeveless hoodie across her chest. The letters on the hoodie read 'respect the fight', something that had caught her eye when she had been riffling through the wardrobe earlier that day.

As soon as Paige retains the title, it isn't her music that blares across the speaker — it's Ary's.

The woman stands underneath the titantron alone, stares down the walkway at the successful Brit. There's a microphone in her hand as she walks towards Paige and then she's clapping, showing her congratulations while the pale woman holds the title tightly across her chest.

"I have to say, Paige, I think that's the best you've ever been," Ary starts. "Props to Nikki as well, even though her little twin magic stunt didn't work. But hey, congratulations on the win, I knew you could do it! I'm not sure whether you've been paying attention, Paige, but last Thursday, I knocked off Emma. Monday, I got rid of Summer. This past Thursday, I even softened up Nikki for you! I will go up against whoever you want me to go up against if you grant me my rematch."

"No, no," Paige says now that she'd got a microphone in her hand, "you've done _quite_ enough. You did me good when our match at Elimination Chamber was changed by granting me a title match before, so it's only fair that I do good by you. Five weeks from now, Battleground… you'll get your rematch then."

A wide grin spreads on Ary's face as the words grace her ears. If this was Paige's option, Stephanie couldn't take it away from her. And five weeks left a _long_ time for Ary to get some momentum up against the pale Diva.

And now, on RAW, just to prove a point, Ary had asked for a match against Alicia Fox.

So she stands in the centre of the ring, stretching out her muscles, waiting for the foxy woman to come down.

But when music blares across arena, it's not Alicia Fox that walks out; it's Seth Rollins.

He's brandishing the title proudly across his shoulder and walking down to the ring like he owns the whole building, his body swaying almost in a swagger.

"Don't mind me," he spoke into the microphone, "I'm just here to observe."

And observe he did.

Throughout the entire eight minute match-up between Ary and Alicia, all Seth does is sit ringside and avidly watch the match, hand absentmindedly stroking the WWE World Heavyweight Title sitting across his shoulder.

When Ary picks up the win in convincing fashion, Seth stands to applaud her.

—

In the background, Ary can hear the sound of Brock Lesnar's music tearing across the arena, the crowd going absolutely _nuts_ at the sight of the Beast Incarnate returning. She can hear the roars, the chants of 'suplex city', but she can't hear his outspoken advocate.

"YOU!"

Ary, who's lacing up her boots, spins at the voice, eyes wide as she watches the man in question walk towards her. Paul Heyman steps into frame, his beady eyes staring at Ary like she's done something wrong.

"Hey, Paul…" Ary murmurs, gazing over his shoulder almost in fright. _The beast can't be in two places at once, can he?_

"Good, you know my name, we can just skip the pointless introductions and get right to the gold." Paul glances down at his phone and then shows it to her, replaying Seth's stolen kiss. "You and that slimy, incompetent weasel who _calls_ himself the WWE World Heavyweight Champion, Seth Rollins — you two are a _thing_?"

"No, no, we're not a thing—"

But Heyman wraps his thick fingers around Ary's arm and pulls her out of frame, the camera spinning to see them walk towards the gorilla.

He pulls her out in front of the WWE Universe, the live crowd, and then waddles down the ramp. Her eyes are wide as she takes in the scene in front of her. Seth is slowly backing away from Lesnar, his eyes downcast in submission, and Stephanie and Hunter are standing in front of the announce table.

As Seth manages to jump out of the ring, almost pissing himself in fear, Heyman shoves her into the ring.

Across the titantron behind her, Ary's dark eyes flash in realisation of whats about to happen. The audience starts to make the connection; not only does Ary utilise the submission hold that Lesnar made famous, she's also been toyed with by Seth for the past couple of months.

The beast turns towards her. He outstretches his hand, almost a kind smile on his face, and Seth is suddenly yelling out at her 'don't do it! Ary run!'.

But Ary doesn't listen. She steps from the corner, a smirk playing across her lips. If she teams with Brock Lesnar, she can _destroy_ the man who had been a thorn in her side. Ary holds her hand out. Brock locks his meaty fingers around her skin. He doesn't shake it.

Instead, Lesnar pulls her towards him, ducks down to lift her into a fireman's carry. Ary screams, helplessly flails her legs to try and get off of him. It's no use.

Brock taunts Seth, taunts the man who has been toying with the woman thrown across his shoulders, but Seth is too scared to do anything — to scared to get into the ring and sacrifice himself.

The audience is screaming in protest even before Ary hits the mat.

* * *

 **wheew so _that_ took a bit too long to get out... sorry! i dont know what happened, i just hit a block for this! **

**to _Raquel the writer_** (i have a timeline mapped out somewhere on my computer but can't find it, but she _definitely_ won it before Rollins winning at Wrestlemania, which makes her reign the longest that the company had until she lost. if that makes sense?) **_Bajor10_ ** (tv progression! yay! let's see what Seth does while Ary is being F5d) **and _T_** (don't worry, she'll get it back soon enough :)! hope it was worth the wait! now i can tease about other stuff heh), **thank you for your kind words!**

 **let me know what you think, sending my love xx**


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